Pope
Francis meets Kenyan youth
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met with young
people at the Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi on Friday morning where he
addressed issues including corruption and tribalism.
Below find a section from the Pope's words to
youth at the Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi.
Thank you very much for the
Rosaries you brought for me, thank you for your presence, your enthusiastic
presence here. Thank you Lynette and thank you Manuel.
I
ask myself something on the basis of all the questions that were asked by
Lynette and Manuel. Why do divisions, wars and deaths occur? Fanatism, and
divisions among young people? Why is there that desire to destroy? In the first
page of the Bible, after all those wonderful things that the Lord had done , a
brother kills another brother. The spirit of evil takes us to destruction and
the spirit of evil takes us to a lack of unity, it takes us to tribalism,
corruption and drugs. It takes us to a destruction out of fanatism. How do we
make it such fanatical idealism doesn’t take us to be robbed of a brother or a
sister. There is a word which might uncomfortable to the ear, but I don’t want
to avoid it. You know it before me. You showed this word when you brought these
expressions of Rosaries that you brought for me. The Bishop used it in the
preparations with prayers for this meeting today. A man or a woman loses the
worst of their humanity when they forget how to pray, because they feel
powerful, because they don’t feel the need to ask the Lord for help in the face
of so many tragedies. Life is full of difficulties, but there are different
ways of looking at difficulties or you see that something that destroys stops
you , or you regard them as a real opportunity. To all of you is open the
choice, for me is this a path of destruction or is it an opportunity to
overcome this difficulty for me, for a member of my family and for this
country? Young people we don’t live in heaven, we live on earth and earth is
full of difficulties and not only of opportunities but sometimes invitations
that will lead you astray towards evil. But there is something that all of you
have which is big, the capacity to choose. Which path do you want to choose?
Which of these two do I want? To choose the path of difficulty and division or
the path of opportunity, opportunity to overcome myself and overcome
difficulties . There are some other difficulties which you mentioned which are
real challenges and before that a question. Do you want to overcome challenges
or be overcome by them? You’re like the sportsmen who come here, the women and
men, all those who sold the ticket to others and have put the money in their
pockets. You have to choose. Lynette mentioned challenge, tribalism, it can
destroy, it can mean having your hands hidden behind your backs and having a
stone in each hand to throw to others. Tribalism can only become with the ear,
with the heart and with your hand. With your ear. What is your culture, why are
you like this? Why do your cousins have these customs? Do they feel inferior or
superior and with a heart? Once we’ve heard the response with our ears then it
passes through to our hearts and then I extend my hand. If you don’t dialogue
with each other, if you don’t listen to each other, then you’re going to have
the division like dust, like a worm that grows in society. Yesterday was
pronounced as a day of prayer and reconciliation. I want to invite you all
today, to the young to you, to invite Lynette and Manuel to come up now and
that we hold each other’s hands, lets hold hands together, lets stand up as a
sign against bad tribalism. We’re all a nation, We are all a nation! That’s how
are hearts must be. Tribalism isn’t just raising our hearts today, it’s an
expression of our desire, of our hearts and this tribalism is a work that we
must carry out every day against this tendency, to overcome this tendency of
tribalism, it is a daily endeavour . It’s a work of the ear, you have to listen
to others, it’s a work of opening your heart to others and it’s a work of your
hands, you offer your hands to others.
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