Animated by a spirit of service, mission, and joy, the Catholic Church must be welcoming toward everyone, Pope Francis said.
Pope Francis
The first World Youth Day to be hosted in a country where Christians are a minority will seek to instill young people with the courage to share the Gospel while fostering interreligious dialogue, organizers of the event said.
While people can get caught up in the pursuit of power and greatness, Jesus teaches that true power is found in the humility of being a servant to the most vulnerable, Pope Francis said.
The 87-year-old Pope Francis publicly thanked God for allowing him “to do as an old pope what I would have liked to do as a young Jesuit,” and that is to travel to Asia to preach the Gospel.
It is not enough to know about Jesus, one must encounter Him, be changed by His Gospel, and follow Him, Pope Francis said.
The true significance of Singapore’s soaring skyscrapers, robust economy and high-tech achievements must be found in the stories of love and care that are behind them, Pope Francis said.
Arriving in Singapore from Timor-Leste, Pope Francis made the biggest transition of his 12-day trip to Asia and the Pacific, moving from one of the world’s poorest countries to one of its wealthiest and from one of the most youthful to one of the oldest.
Building enthusiasm for living and sharing the Christian faith is not a matter of “techniques” but of being joyful and serving others, Pope Francis said.
Even members of the most remote, smallest and poorest Christian communities are called to share the Gospel and to do so, first, by the way they live, Pope Francis told the Catholics of Indonesia.
Traveling on an ITA Airways plane, Pope Francis set off on the longest foreign trip of his papacy.