As an Argentine he is the first pope to visit Auschwitz who did not himself live himself through the brutality of World War II on Europe’s soil.
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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.
Pope Francis on Saturday offered up a prayer to protect the world from a “devastating wave of terrorism”, in the middle of presiding over the world’s largest gathering of Catholic youth assembled this week in Poland.
His head bowed, the pope prayed in silent contemplation before meeting Holocaust survivors in front of the death wall where the Nazis summarily shot thousands of people.
Francis had said he wanted his visit – the third by a pope – to be conducted in silence.
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.
“Instead, once we leave Birkenau we must spend the rest of our lives screaming, yelling and fighting all kinds of injustices”, he said yesterday.
Pope Francis, center, attends the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) with youths participating in World Youth Days, in Blonie Park, Krakow, Poland, Friday, July 29, 2016.
Later, however, Francis spoke with passion about his Auschwitz visit to a crowd of young people gathered outside the archbishop’s residence where he was staying for the night.
Numerous faithful had camped out overnight after an evening of entertainment and prayer with the pope in the same field Saturday night that drew 1.6 million people, according World Youth Day organizers.
Francis, 79, said being constantly glued to screens – where the awful events of the world become just another story on the evening news – numbed youngsters to the suffering of others.
The “world is at war”, Francis said, but the way to “overcome fear” was to welcome people fleeing conflicts and persecution – a message with particular resonance in Poland, which has taken a hard line against refugees.
Saturday’s vigil was a huge security challenge, since numerous hundreds of thousands slept there overnight and others kept streaming in to see the pope Sunday morning at Mass.
Stopping at a wooden Door of Mercy inscribed with the words “Jesus, I trust in you” in five languages, he was greeted by several young men and women.
“Jesus”, however, “is the Lord of risk, of the eternal “more”, he said.
Officials said they deployed tens of thousands of security officials to cover the event.
He warned youths that the solution “is not conquering hate with more hate, conquering violence with more violence, conquering terror with more terror”, but rather the “response to this world at war has a name: it’s called fraternity, it’s called brotherhood, it’s called communion”.
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.
From there it was a quick drive to the hilltop Sanctuary of St. John Paul II.
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For those concerned about their own limitations and sins, Pope Francis assured young people that the Lord is not concerned with what he have been or done, but “about everything we have to give, all the love we are capable of spreading”.
