Echoing St. John Paul II, Pope Francis tells WYD: ‘Be not afraid!’

Pope Francis speaks to a group of young people during the World Youth Day welcome ceremony at Eduardo VII Park in Lisbon, Portugal, Aug. 3, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

LISBON — Throughout World Youth Day (WYD), Pope Francis kept a close connection with St. John Paul II.

Throughout his speeches in Lisbon, Pope Francis repeatedly echoed several of the phrases that the WYD founder and Polish pontiff said throughout the eight WYDs that he attended during his papacy.

Known for speaking off-script, Pope Francis often looked up away from his notes and repeated several phrases.

“In the Church, no one is left out or left over. There is room for everyone. Everyone, everyone, everyone! The Lord does not point a finger, but opens His arms,” he told the mass of people in Lisbon’s Eduardo VII Park Aug. 3 for the WYD welcome ceremony. Pointing into the crowd, he said: “You, you, you, over there, all of us, me, we were all called by our names. Don’t be afraid, take heart.”

The “illusions” of the virtual world “attract us and promise happiness” but later show themselves to be “vain, superfluous things, substitutes that leave us empty inside,” the pope said. “Jesus is not like that; He believes in you, in each one of you and us, because to Him, each one of us is important, and that is Jesus.”

The next day, during a meditation on the Stations of the Cross, also held at Eduardo VII Park, Pope Francis said that when feelings of suffering, anxiety and loneliness bring young people to tears, Jesus cries with them and walks alongside them on the way of the cross.

“All of us in life have cried, and we cry still. And there is Jesus with us. He cries with us because He accompanies us in the darkness that leads us to tears,” he continued.

After many of the 1.5 million young people gathered in Lisbon’s Tejo Park waited for hours in near 100-degree weather to participate in the WYD vigil — a key WYD event where pilgrims walk for miles to an outdoor camp, dubbed “Campo da Graça,” or Camp Thanksgiving, to spend the evening with Pope Francis in a solemn time of Eucharistic adoration and hear a special address — with Pope Francis Aug. 5, he again shared a message often repeated by his Polish predecessor: “Do not be afraid!”

“Carry on; if you fall, get back up,” Pope Francis said. “Nothing is free in life; everything has to be paid for. Only one thing is free: the love of Jesus! So, with this free gift that we have — the love of Jesus — and with the desire to carry on the journey, let us walk in hope, let us be mindful of our roots, and move forward without fear. Do not be afraid.”
Long after the pope left, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims carried that message into the night, dancing and singing.

Some young people kicked around a soccer ball, while others eagerly careened between groups to meet other pilgrims and exchange pins, prayer cards, rosaries and medals. Flags were a popular trading item, often signed and passed along to another pilgrim, then another. All around, priests wore purple stoles, hearing dozens upon dozens of confessions.

The next morning, after the pilgrims awoke to thumping electronic music to rouse them from their slumber under a starry Portuguese sky, during his Aug. 6 homily at the outdoor Mass, Pope Francis reflected on the Transfiguration of Christ, repeating again the words of St. John Paul II and of Jesus Himself to His disciples: “Do not be afraid.”
He emphasized three points to the youth: “to shine, so be radiant; then, listen in order not to take the wrong path; finally, the third word: to be unafraid.”

At the end of the Mass, the pope announced that the next edition of the international event will be in the distant city of Seoul, South Korea, in 2027. †