Pope to youth: expand your wisdom and meet the elderly

Vatican City, Dec 16, 2017 / 16:26 pm

Pope Francis met with the youth of Catholic Action on Saturday as the movement marks its 150th anniversary year.

The pontiff encouraged the young people to meet with the movement's "grandparents."

"This is something very beautiful and important," he said, adding that "the elderly are the historic memory of every community, a heritage of wisdom and faith to be heard, preserved, and valued."

"These are your peripheries!" he said.

The delegation of 12 boys and girls, accompanied by their teachers, came from 12 different Italian dioceses, Vatican News reports. The movement aims to expand Catholic influence in society.

The Pope encouraged the youth to fix their attention on "the decisive events of the life of Jesus" and "to seek to become ever more like Him, your greatest and most faithful friend."

He encouraged them to be ready to shoot a photograph and to be "good photographers," both of the deeds Jesus has done and of the reality of their world.

They should be attentive to those who have forgotten, "the poorest, the weakest, those relegated to the margins society because they are considered as a problem."

They should seek out those "no one ever sees" and "dare to take the first step to meet them, to give them a little bit of your time, a smile, an act of tenderness."

For Pope Francis, the meeting with the delegation was joyful because it allowed them to update him on their activities of "solidarity in favor of the poor and of the most disadvantaged."