Earlier on Saturday the pope had surprised teenagers by appearing in St Peter’s Square to hear their confessions.
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Thousands of them confessed to a total of 150 priests on duty at St Peter’s before passing through a door of the basilica that is only open for the duration of the Jubilee, which started in December and runs to November.
Francis shooks hands warmly with each of them and spent a total of an hour and a quarter on the square before departing with a cheery “ciao ragazzi” (Bye guys!).
“Your happiness has no price”, he said.
While speaking to thousands of teenagers at the Sunday, April 24, 2016 mass, Pope Francis stated that living without Jesus is like not having signals on your smartphones.
Love does not happen because we talk about it, the Pope underlined, “but when we live it”. “There is always a temptation to let our affections be tainted by an instinctive desire to take, to have what we find pleasing; our consumerist culture reinforces this tendency”. It can not be bought.
“You are witnesses of how our clement and merciful God can transform the evil and injustice you have suffered into a good for all”, he said.
Departing from his prepared speech, the Pope said the “true friends” of Jesus stand out because theirs is a “genuine love that shines forth in their way of life” through “real actions”.
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“Be skeptical about people who want to make you believe that you are only important if you act tough like the heroes in films or if you wear the latest fashions”. This was followed by a youth rally in Rome’s Olympic Stadium. “Always be sure to go where there is a network: family, parish, school”, he said, according to AFP.
