The pope on Thursday challenged university students to make the world a fairer and more inclusive placeas he focused the second day of his trip to Portugal on inspiring young people to use their privileges to combat climate change and economic inequalities.
Francis received a warm welcome at the Catholic University, one of the country’s leading institutions of higher learning, where students sang papal chants under already radiant sunshine on the central Lisbon campus.
After the act, Francisco went to the coastal town of Cascais to visit the local headquarters of the Scolas Occurrentes foundation, a movement he founded years ago to bring young people of different backgrounds and nationalities together.
The Pope is in Lisbon to attend the weekend World Youth Day, a massive Catholic event started by Saint John Paul II in the 1980s to encourage young Catholics in their faith. Francis has gladly followed the legacy of John Paul in his attempt to inspire the next generations to support their priorities for social, economic and environmental justice.
In his speech on Thursday, the pontiff urged students to take risk and to reject the temptation to only perpetuate the status quo – the “current global system of elitism and inequality” – with an attitude of self-protection.