Francis began his public day with a visit to the Divine Mercy Sanctuary, a kilometer (half-mile) stroll away from the St. John Paul II shrine.
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“Touch the hearts of terrorists so that they may recognise the evil of their actions and may turn to the way of peace and goodness, of respect for the life and for the dignity of every human being, regardless of religion, origin, wealth or poverty”, he said in the prayer.
“The times we live in do not call for young ‘couch potatoes, ‘” he said to applause, “but for young people with shoes, or better, boots laced”.
Francis has carried a grueling schedule since arriving in Poland on Wednesday, making his first-ever visit to Eastern Europe. He has led Masses, visited Auschwitz, and met with Polish politicians, clergy, sick children and many faithful. Embedded in a gray memorial stone, a story below the altar where Pope Francis celebrated Mass Saturday in a shrine dedicated to St. John Paul II, is a glass bubble, filled with blood taken by doctors from the Polish pontiff shortly before his death in 2005.
Large numbers of young pilgrims are wandering under a scorching sun into a large meadow near Krakow ahead of an evening vigil with Pope Francis.
Pope Francis in Poland’s Krakow on Saturday evoked the image of alienated youths that spend the day slouching on a sofa, in a speech aimed at rousing them to get up, get moving and make this a better world.
Pope Francis has had lunch with 12 volunteers at a Catholic youth gathering in Poland. No, we came for another reason: “To leave a mark”, Francis said told a crowd that Polish media estimated at over 1 million in a huge field in Brzegi, a village outside the southern city of Krakow. One of the lucky few, Paula Mora of Colombia, said “it was like being with our father, and we were his children”.
Francis said it was important for church leaders not to lead “two-track lives” or to “remain enclosed, out of fear or convenience, within ourselves…”
He will end his visit to Poland on Sunday after a Mass in the same meadow, the crowning event of the youth jamboree.
The Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters that the meeting took place Saturday in Krakow during the pope’s five-day pilgrimage to Poland.
Nuns and priests, singing and waving little banners, greeted the pope as he entered the church in the Krakow suburb.
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.
Later he went to the nearby Sanctuary of St. John Paul II, also in the Lagiewniki district, consecrated in 2013 and dedicated to the late pope who is still the source of great pride in Poland.
Practically down the block from John Paul II’s relics in Krakow are bones of a 20th-century Polish nun and mystic, FaustIna Kowalska.
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Francis’ five-day trip to Poland is taking place in the shadow of the Polish pontiff, who has cult-like status in Poland for his role in inspiring his native country to stand up to communist rule in the 1980s.
