Vancouver pilgrims join Pope Francis at WYD in Portugal

More than 150 young people from the Archdiocese of Vancouver are among thousands of Canadians attending World Youth Day in Lisbon, where Pope Francis began his visit by calling on Portugal’s leaders to promote peace, families, and environmental stewardship, policies he said would help light “lamps of hope” across Europe.

In his first hours in Portugal’s coastal capital, the Holy Father met with President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Assembly President Augusto Ernesto dos Santos Silva, and other civil authorities at the Belém Cultural Center in Lisbon.

In his address to the dignitaries, Francis described Lisbon as “a city of encounter which embraces many peoples and cultures,” one that is “grounded in a desire to be open to the world and to explore it.”

“Lisbon, as an ocean city … reminds us of the importance of the whole, to think of borders as places of contact, not as boundaries that separate,” Francis said, claiming the current historical moment calls for “courageous courses of peace.”

Describing the world as “divided” and “insufficiently cohesive,” the Pope argued that Lisbon – the country’s capital and largest city – can “suggest a different path.”

“A sea of young people is pouring into this hospitable city,” Pope Francis said, referring to the upcoming World Youth Day festivities. “Young people from around the world, who long for unity, peace, and fraternity, urge us to make their good dreams come true.” The week of events, the Pope said, “represents a chance to build together” and “to put out into the deep and to set sail together towards the future.”

Touching on his familiar theme of environmental stewardship, the Pope said that despite major progress toward environmental renewal in Portugal and Europe, “the problem remains extremely grave.”

The oceans, Pope Francis said, are becoming increasingly polluted; it “reminds us that human life is meant to be an integrated part of an environment greater than ourselves … How can we claim to believe in young people if we do not give them healthy spaces in which to build the future?”

The Pope also touched on what he called “the fear of forming families and bringing children into the world” that he said has gripped much of the younger generations.

Like most of Europe, Portugal has for decades seen a birth rate significantly below the “replacement rate,” with the country’s population essentially flat since the turn of the century. Demographers have warned that sharply falling fertility rates in Europe and elsewhere pose a significant threat to the stability of nations, with many Western countries facing the near-future prospect of decline and insolvency with fewer and fewer citizens and workers to help build their respective economies and maintain their national identities.

Francis argued in his speech that the crisis “calls for reversing the fall in the birth rate and the weakening of the will to live.”

The Pope challenged political leaders “to show foresight by investing in the future, in families, and in children, and by promoting intergenerational covenants that do not cancel the past but forge bonds between young and old.”

Pope Francis further urged Portugal and the world to focus on “fraternity, which we Christians learn about from Jesus Christ.”

Globalization, the Pope said, has “challenged [us] to cultivate a sense of community, beginning with concern for those who live close by.”

“How beautiful it is to realize that we are brothers and sisters and to pursue the common good, leaving behind our conflicts and differing viewpoints!” the Pope said. He expressed hope that World Youth Day would generate an “impulse towards universal openness” in its participants.

On Wednesday morning, before leaving his Vatican residence, Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis met with some 15 people, confirmed Matteo Bruni, Director of the Holy See Press Office. “Among them were some young people, girls and boys, who are spending time in a rehabilitation community and are therefore unable to attend World Youth Day.”

With them were three grandparents with their grandchildren.

“This meeting, as well as the World Day of Grandparents and Elderly just celebrated, underlines the bond between generations, which can support each other and learn from each other,” Bruni’s statement concluded.

The flight is scheduled to arrive at Figo Maduro air base in Portugal’s capital of Lisbon around 10 am local time.

As is tradition for Pope Francis before and after apostolic journeys, the Holy Father made a special stop at Rome’s Marian Basilica, Santa Maria Maggiore, to entrust his travel to the Blessed Mother’s protection.

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