APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS to PORTUGAL

Mr President of the Republic, Mr President of the Assembly of the Republic, Mr Prime Minister, Members of Government and the Diplomatic Corps, Authorities, Representatives of Civil Society and the world of culture, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I greet you cordially, and I thank the President for his welcome and kind words. The President is very welcoming. Thank you! I am happy to have come to Lisbon, this city of encounter which embraces many peoples and cultures, and which, in these days, is even ...

Dear brother Bishops, Dear priests, deacons, consecrated women and men, seminarians, Dear pastoral workers, Dear brothers and sisters, good evening!
I am pleased to be with you, not only to experience World Youth Day together with so many young people, but also to share in your own ecclesial journey, your challenges and your hopes. I thank Bishop José Ornelas Carvalho for his kind words. This evening I would like to join you in prayer, so that, as the Bishop said, along with the young ...

Dear brothers and sisters, bom dia!
Thank you, Madame Rector, for your kind words. Thank you! You said that all of us feel like “pilgrims”. That is a beautiful word, and one well worth reflecting on. To be a pilgrim literally means to put aside our daily routine and choose to set out on a different path, moving away from our comfort zone towards a new horizon of meaning. The notion of “pilgrimage” nicely describes our human condition for, like pilgrims, we find ourselves facing great questions ...

Dear young people, good evening!
Welcome and thank you for being here. I am pleased to see all of you, and also to hear the delightful noise you are making! This makes me share your infectious joy. It is good to be together in Lisbon. You were invited here by me, and by the Patriarch of Lisbon, whom I thank for his words of greeting. You were invited also by your Bishops, priests, catechists and youth leaders. Let us thank all those who invited you and all those who worked to make this meeting ...

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
I thank the Parish Priest for his words, and I greet all of you, especially the friends of the Centro Paroquial da Serafina of the Casa Famiglia Ajuda de Berço and the Associazione Acreditar. And I thank those of you who spoke of the work being done here. It is nice to be here together, during the celebration of this World Youth Day, as we reflect on the Virgin Mary setting out to help another person (cf. Lk 1:39). Indeed, charity is the origin ...

Dear brothers and sisters, good evening!
Today you will walk with Jesus. Jesus is the Way and we will walk with him, because he himself undertook the journey. When he was among us, Jesus walked. He walked along healing the sick, caring for the poor, doing works of justice. As he walked he preached and taught. Jesus walked. But the journey most engraved on our hearts is the way of Calvary, the way of the Cross. And today you and I will prayerfully retrace the Stations of the Cross. We will see ...

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
I thank Bishop Ornelas for his greeting, and I thank all of you for your presence and your prayer. We have recited the Rosary, a very beautiful and vital prayer; vital because it connects us with the lives of Jesus and Mary. We meditated on the Joyful Mysteries, which remind us that the Church can only be a house of joy. This Chapel of the Apparitions is a beautiful image of the Church: welcoming and without doors. Indeed, the Church has no doors in ...

Dear brothers and sisters, good evening!
It gives me much joy to see all of you! Thank you for having made the pilgrimage to be here! I think of the Virgin Mary, who also travelled, in order to visit Elizabeth: “Mary set out and went with haste” (Lk 1:39). We might ask, why did Mary set out and go with haste to visit her cousin? Certainly, Mary had just learned that Elizabeth was pregnant, but so was she; so why go, if no one had asked her to? Mary does something that was not asked of her, and ...

After these exciting days, surely we feel like repeating the words of the Apostle Peter on the mount of the Transfiguration: “Lord, it is good for us to be here!” (Mt 17:4). Indeed, how good it has been to share this experience with Jesus, with one another, and to pray together with joyful hearts. Now, we can also ask an important question: What will we take back with us as we resume our daily lives?
I would like to answer this question with three verbs, drawing from the Gospel we have heard: ...

Dear brothers and sisters,
There is an expression that we have heard frequently during these days: “thank you”, or rather, “obrigado”. The Patriarch of Lisbon just told us something very important: that obrigado not only conveys a sense of gratitude for what we have received but also the desire to give in return. In this grace-filled event, we have all received much. Now, as we return home, the Lord makes us, in turn, feel the need to share with others, to bear witness joyfully and eagerly to ...

Dear friends, good afternoon! And thank you!
I am grateful to the Patriarch of Lisbon for his words, and to Bishop Aguiar and all of you for having worked so hard and so well: you have made these unforgettable days possible! You have laboured for months, quietly, without fuss, not seeking the limelight, so that we could all be here to sing together: “Jesus lives and does not leave us alone: we will never stop loving”. Not only that; you have been a good example, because you worked together as a ...