Francis spoke to the bishops at a modern shrine to the memory of the late Pope John Paul and built on a site of a stone quarry on the outskirts of Krakow where German occupiers forced the future pontiff to work during World War Two.
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“Today, we adults need you to teach us how to live in diversity, in dialogue, to experience multiculturalism not as a threat but an opportunity”, he continued.
“But when we make contact with life itself, with these real lives that aren’t just media stories on small screens, then we’re getting somewhere and we feel invited to get involved”, Efe news quoted him as saying.
Francis is taking part in World Youth Day, a global celebration of hundreds of thousands of young Catholics, during his five-day visit to Poland.
Pope Francis prays during a prayer vigil on the occasion of the World Youth Days, in Campus Misericordiae in Brzegi, near Krakow, Poland, Saturday, July 30, 2016.
Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, then recited in Hebrew Psalm 130, which starts: “From the depths I have cried out to you, O Lord”. “Do you exist?” In response, Francis asked the young people to pray for Syria and other places in conflict and said: “Once and for all, may we realize that nothing justifies shedding the blood of a brother or sister”.
“Jesus’ heart is won over by honest openness, by hearts capable of acknowledging and grieving over their weakness, yet trusting that precisely there God’s mercy will be active”, Pope Francis said.
Pope Francis has had lunch with 12 volunteers at a Catholic youth gathering in Poland.
Later Friday, Francis met with patients at the University Children’s Hospital in Krakow, where he called on Christians to spend more time with the ill and to care for them, as he said Jesus did.
As Pope Francis headed to a large meadow in Poland to celebrate a Mass he made a quick ride by vehicle to bless two buildings run by the Catholic charity Caritas. God hopes in you.
Pope Francis warned against a more risky kind of paralysis, which he described as “sofa-happiness” – in other words, the paralysis of confusing happiness with the sense of comfort, freeing us up to escape into the world of videogames and the computer, all the while keeping us at home with the illusion of safety. Kolbe died on 14 August 1941 and was later canonised by Pope John Paul II.
Going into the church, the pope paused to see a young girl whose artificial legs were paid for by Francis, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said.
The Pope challenged young people not to “vegetate” in a comfortable life, but reminded them of their call “to leave a mark”.
John Paul II made her a saint in 2000, and in 2002, during his last voyage to Poland, dedicated the light-filled Basilica of Divine Mercy, three years before his own death.
The Mass, which began 30 minutes earlier than planned because of the pope’s early arrival, followed his morning visit to the tomb of St. Faustina Kowalska at the nearby Divine Mercy basilica in Krakow’s Lagiewniki suburb.
On Saturday, nuns and priests, singing and waving little banners, greeted Francis as he entered the vast church.
The sanctuary was consecrated in 2013.
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Other relics of the saint in the chapel include his pectoral cross, as well as a tunic he wore the day a gunman shot him, wounding him critically, on May 13, 1981, in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City.
