In his first speech, to President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and diplomats at a cultural centre, Francis said the world was currently “sailing amid storms on the ocean of history”, including the tempest of the war in Ukraine, and urged Europe to find the resolve to help end it and other conflicts.
EDUCATION, NOT WEAPONS
He said Europe should divert money spent on armaments and use it to boost education and fund family-friendly legislation to help reverse a falling birth rate aggravated by prohibitive costs of housing for young couples.
He also urged Europe to rise to the challenge of “welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating” migrants, both for humanitarian reasons and as a means of boosting dwindling populations.
He decried “massive numbers of deaths at sea and empty cradles”.
The youth event in Portugal, which is about 80 per cent Catholic, comes less than six months after a report by a Portuguese commission said at least 4,815 minors were sexually abused by clergy – mostly priests – over seven decades.
“There will be young people from all over the world and the reality (of abuse) is present in all continents,” said Filipa Almeida, 43, who was abused by a priest when she was 17.
“It’s a great opportunity for the Church to do something,” said Almeida, a co-founder of Coracao Silenciado (Silenced Heart), an association which helps victims.
Francis is expected to meet privately with abuse victims.
A huge billboard raising awareness of clerical sexual abuse was put up overnight in Lisbon hours before Francis’ arrival.
Some Portuguese have criticised the event’s costs in one of Western Europe’s poorest nations where millions are struggling to make ends meet due to low salaries, inflation and a housing crisis.
Francis will also visit Fatima, the town north of Lisbon where the Church believes that the Virgin Mary appeared to three poor shepherd children in 1917.
Source: CNA
