Pope Francis arrived at the Edward VII Park, where more than half a million young people were waiting for him to preside over one of the key events of WYD: the Stations of the Cross.
Dear sisters and brothers, good afternoon.
At the beginning, Pope Francis invited the young people to live the Way of the Cross as a way of accompanying Jesus. The Pope offered a space for prayer to reflect on life's concerns.
POPE FRANCIS
I ask you a question now, but do not answer it out loud. Each of you answer it internally: 'Do I cry from time to time? Are there things in life that make me cry?' All of us in life have cried and still cry, and Jesus is with us. He weeps with us because He accompanies us in the darkness that leads to weeping.
Today, we're going to walk the road with Jesus—the way of his suffering, the way of our anxieties, the way of our loneliness.
Each of the 14 stations reflected on the concerns and problems of today's world. And this is one example.
The world we live in is perhaps not very different. Wars, attacks, mass shootings but also violence in marriages and relationships, child abuse, bullying, abuse of power and families, where the words that are thrown around are worse than stones.
The meditations of the Stations of the Cross were accompanied by music and dramatic performances as the cross was moved around the stage. Some of them were accompanied by video messages with the personal testimonies of some of the young people present.
The Stations of the Cross ended with a song as the 50 dancers from 22 different countries approached Pope Francis, many of them in tears.
CA
TR: KG
