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Pope Francis' visit to the Philippines spoke to Filipinos heart-to-heart

President Benigno Aquino III of the Philippines looks on as a girl embraces Pope Francis after a Jan. 16 welcoming ceremony at the Malacanang Palace in Manila. (CNS/Reuters/Ryeshen Egagamao)

by N.J. Viehland

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Pope Francis deeply touched the many Filipinos who came in droves to see the pope who loves children and poor people, embraces the sick and suffering, and speaks to them heart-to-heart.

According to Francis , he was also moved by the people he met. On an in-flight interview on his return to Rome from Manila, the pope said his visit to Tacloban -- Typhoon Haiyan's ground zero -- was the most moving experience of his Jan. 15-19 pastoral visit to the Philippines.

Even though a typhoon threatened to cut his visit short, Francis arrived in Tacloban, donning a yellow plastic raincoat throughout the entire Mass with survivors and pushing through with his motorcade to the town of Palo and then back to Tacloban airport.

Haiyan survivor Harold Naputo said people would have understood if Francis hadn't come to Tacloban as planned on Jan. 17, "but it was good that the pope came."

"After Mass, I felt free ... like I did not feel in a very long time. I finally had closure," said Naputo, an elementary school teacher.

Naputo, his wife and his young daughters heard the pope's words loud and clear: "So many of you have lost everything. I do not know what to tell you. But surely he [Jesus on the cross] knows what to tell you! So many of you have lost members of your family. I can only be silent; I accompany you silently, with my heart," Francis said during his homily .

Naputo began to weep uncontrollably. "In all these months, nobody had told us that," Naputo told NCR .

Days after Francis' visit, Naputo and friends were still asking, "Why did we not feel that until the pope came?" They wondered why authorities didn't give them the same message of consolation or say that even though they did not know what to do, they were with the people. Naputo said survivors feel "caught in the middle" of the political tension between national and local officials.

While it is unclear what Francis' words and actions will move politicians to do for survivors, Naputo said, "I want to help beggars and people living off the streets that we see but have been ignoring."

The visit with survivors of the 2013 typhoon -- where more than 6,000 people were killed and more than 4 million people lost their homes -- was the main purpose of his visit to the country, Francis announced in his meeting with President Benigno Aquino III.

During his visit, Francis "communicated very effectively" the theme of mercy and compassion and did not dwell on rituals, structures and "the many things we have accumulated over centuries about the Catholic church," said Oblate Fr. Eliseo Mercado. He joined Francis' encounter with families Jan. 16, the Jan. 18 meeting with the youth and final Mass at Luneta Park.

Mercado noted how the pope would drop his prepared speeches to stress points, teach or to express his own personal feelings. "It's very touching, especially for priests like me," he said.

Mercado said he thought the church had lost touch with the poor and was trying to re-engage them.

"The poor are the very heart of evangelization. Remove the poor from the message of Jesus, and there's nothing there anymore," he said. However, Francis focused on the poor in most of his speeches and drew many people from poor communities to his various activities.

The priest liked most the pope's off-the-cuff remarks to families at the Mall of Asia on Jan. 16, when he stressed the importance of dreaming of a baby's future and of good qualities of spouses. The pope also appealed to the 20,000 people in the arena to retain the ability to dream.

The "classic literature" feel to his speech allowed the pope to navigate controversial issues about family and human life without heavy theologizing or moralizing, Mercado said.

"Francis emphasized church teaching that every family should be a sanctuary of life and urged looking into our value as a people instead of falling prey to ideological colonization," the priest said.

In delivering his speech, Francis also opened up to more people, including those of other faiths. "Anybody belonging to any religion has a husband, wife, children, [or] family and can relate to what Francis discussed," Mercado added.

Naputo told NCR he found relief in the pope's words encouraging people to learn to weep. He said he has lived in a kind of "zombie city" since Typhoon Haiyan. He said he has not cried to try to show his family that everything was under control and going to be OK.

"In fact, I was worrying then where to get money to fix up our house," he said.

Benedictine Sr. Mary John Mananzan, a feminist theologian who chairs the board of trustees of Women and Gender Concerns of the Association of Major Religious Superiors, was "so happy" to hear Francis comment that women were underrepresented in that youth-sharing program.

The pope also reminded its organizers that women have a lot to tell society. "Women are able to pose questions we men are unable to understand," Francis said.

"I cheered this. He is all heart," Mananzan said.

Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, told reporters at the end of the conference's plenary assembly that Filipinos also "brought out the best in Pope Francis."

He said the whole world watched the country for five days as both the Philippines and Francis gave their best.

"It feels good to be a Filipino these days," Villegas said.

Many of the estimated 7 million people who came to papal visit routes and events had watched stories about the pope on television or heard them on the radio in previous months as the Philippines church prepared for the papal visit .

"We've been praying for him and the papal visit after every Mass for the past months," Luneta Massgoer Rosanna Remigio told NCR . She had cards with prayers issued by the bishops' conference after the Vatican announced the visit.

However, Carmelite Fr. Marlon Lacal, of the Inter-Congregational Theological Center in Quezon City, told NCR he feels "a pinch of sadness" with his excitement over the papal visit.

"The excitement is for the effect of the pope's visit on the church to become evident, and sadness comes with the concern that we will just go back to our 'positions of power' and not take up the challenges Pope Francis posed to clergy and religious," Lacal said.

[N.J. Viehland is NCR correspondent in Manila.]

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The Two-Way

International, tens of thousands welcome pope francis in the philippines.

Eyder Peralta

Pope Francis waves to the faithful upon his arrival in Manila on Thursday. Lam Yik Fei/Getty Images hide caption

Pope Francis waves to the faithful upon his arrival in Manila on Thursday.

With tens of thousands of faithful lined up to welcome him, Pope Francis landed in Manila, capital of the Philippines, on Thursday.

As Reuters reports, the visit is marked by intense security, the biggest security operation of its kind in the country's history. Reuters explains :

"The other pontiffs to visit the Philippines were both targets of assassination attempts, prompting the deployment of nearly 50,000 soldiers and police in the capital and in the central Philippine province of Leyte for his weekend trip there. "On Wednesday, President Benigno Aquino personally inspected motorcade routes and public venues, which were lined with black-and-white concrete barriers topped by thick wire mesh to control eager crowd. "Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas said Aquino was willing to serve as Francis' 'personal bodyguard' to ensure his safety. In a televised address on Monday, Aquino appealed to Filipinos to follow security rules after two people were killed in a stampede during a religious procession on Friday."

The plots, according to Reuters, happened in 1970, when an artist tried to stab Pope Paul VI and in 1995, when police discovered a plot to blow up Pope John Paul II.

The New York Times reports that despite the church's waning influence in the Philippines, Pope Francis is being welcomed with "arms open wide."

When Pope John Paul II visited, it prompted the "largest papal gathering ever."

Some experts, reports the Times , are expecting Francis to break that record with gathering that could exceed eight million people.

"There were four million people gathered when Pope John Paul II came to Manila in 1995," the Rev. Xavier C. Alpasa, a priest and professor at Ateneo de Manila, a Jesuit university in Manila, told the Times . "That record will be broken because of the deep spirituality of Filipino Catholics, but also because of Pope Francis himself. People are so enamored by his inclusive statements, his revolutionary ideas, his compassion."

Francis will be in the Phillipines through the weekend. He's scheduled to officiate mass near the Tacloban Airport on Saturday. If you remember, Tacloban was devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

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10 years of Pope Francis: A look back at his visit in the Philippines | ABS-CBN News

10 years of Pope Francis: A look back at his visit in the Philippines

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As Pope Francis Visits Philippines, Tensions Between Church and Government Surface

Philippines president criticizes church, president benigno s. aquino iii of the philippines admonished the catholic clergy in the presence of the pope, saying some members were too critical, and have even criticized his hair..

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (JANUARY 16, 2014) (HOST BROADCASTER POOL- ACCESS ALL) (SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY OVERLAID WITH GATHERED GUESTS) (English) PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT, BENIGNO AQUINO, SAYING: “In these attempts at correcting the wrongs of the past, one would think that the Church would be a natural ally. In contrast to their previous silence, some members of the clergy seem to think that the way to be true to the faith is to find something to criticize, even to the extent that one prelate admonished me to do something about my hair, as if it were a mortal sin.”

By Floyd Whaley

• Jan. 16, 2015

MANILA — Pope Francis’ first full day in the Philippines was filled with the pageantry befitting a country in which more than 80 percent of the people identify themselves as Roman Catholics. But the tensions that have roiled relations between the church and the country’s leaders in recent years was also on display.

At a gathering with dignitaries on Friday, President Benigno S. Aquino III, who has battled local church leaders for much of his administration, complained that they had been overly critical of him and silent about his predecessor’s suspected corruption. And in his own remarks, the pope indirectly weighed in on the side of the clergy on an issue that has caused tensions with the government: the enactment of a law to provide free contraception for women.

In some of his strongest statements of church teachings against artificial contraception, Francis exhorted people who had come to see him to “be sanctuaries of respect for life, proclaiming the sacredness of every human life from conception to natural death.” He added, “What a gift this would be to society, if every Christian family lived fully its noble vocation!”

Vatican anaysts interpreted another of the pope’s remarks — “Beware of the new ideological colonization that tries to destroy the family” — as one of his strongest arguments yet in support of the church’s traditional stance against gay marriage. He also warned of attempts to “redefine the very institution of marriage.” Although Francis has made similar remarks opposing gay marriage, his comments Friday, on such an international stage, will probably reassure Catholic traditionalists who were perturbed by his oft-cited remark about gay priests in which he said, “Who am I to judge?”

Mr. Aquino’s comments focused in part on the church’s close relations with his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who supported the clergy’s efforts to block the contraception bill. Mr. Aquino’s government has aggressively investigated Mrs. Arroyo, who was arrested in 2011 and charged with election fraud; she was later indicted on suspicion of misusing more than $8 million in government lottery proceeds. Many officials of her administration have also been implicated in corruption scandals.

“There was a true test of faith when many members of the church, once advocates for the poor, the marginalized, and the helpless, suddenly became silent in the face of the previous administration’s abuses, which we are still trying to rectify to this very day,” Mr. Aquino said at the presidential palace as Pope Francis looked on somberly. “In these attempts at correcting the wrongs of the past, one would think that the church would be our natural ally.”

He continued, “In contrast to their previous silence, some members of the clergy now seem to think that the way to be true to the faith means finding something to criticize, even to the extent that one prelate admonished me to do something about my hair, as if it were a mortal sin.”

Mr. Aquino was referring to a remark made in 2012 by an archbishop, Ramon Arguelles, who said that the balding president “should wear a wig.”

In his remarks, Mr. Aquino also praised past Catholic Church leaders in the Philippines who were instrumental in the overthrow of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and he called Francis a “unifying and revitalizing voice” in the church.

Critics of Mr. Aquino reacted swiftly to his negative comments, with some saying that they were inappropriate for a visit intended to welcome the pope.

“Aquino used the event to discuss his issues with the church,” said Renato Reyes Jr., secretary general of Bayan, a left-leaning organization. “Unable to rise above his own concerns, he turned the event into a gripe session even as he conveniently omitted the exclusion and inequality pervading the country under his watch.”

In a statement delivered before Mr. Aquino made his comments, Francis spoke out against the corruption that has dogged the Philippines for decades, urging an audience of senior political leaders “to reject every form of corruption, which diverts resources from the poor, and to make concerted efforts to ensure the inclusion of every man and woman and child.”

“It is now, more than ever, necessary that political leaders be outstanding for honesty, integrity and commitment to the common good,” he added.

Mr. Aquino has made anticorruption efforts a hallmark of his presidency, but his administration has been hit by multiple accusations of graft in the last year.

The pope is on a five-day visit to the Philippines, the country with Asia’s largest Catholic population. He has been welcomed with great enthusiasm, with thousands lining streets to catch a glimpse of him as he passes by.

On Saturday, the pope arrived in Leyte, the island in the central Philippines that was devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013. On Sunday, he is to celebrate a public Mass in Manila that government officials say could draw more than five million people.

Pope Francis' Asia trip marks 60 years of papal visits to the region

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, left, shows Pope Francis how to give the popular hand sign for "I love you" at the Mall of Asia arena in Manila, Philippines, Friday, Jan. 16, 2015. (AP Photo/Wally Santana, File)

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Pope Francis' visit to Southeast Asia, the longest trip in his papacy, is the latest in decades of regular papal visits to the Asia-Pacific region.

Papal travel is a thing of the modern era, starting with Pope Paul VI , who became the first pontiff to leave Italy in more than 150 years when he made his famous pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1964, shortly after becoming pope.

His next visit was to India later that same year, marking the first time a pope had ever visited Asia. It was one of many firsts for Paul VI, who was also the first pope to fly in an airplane, the first to leave Europe and the first to visit countries on six continents, earning him the nickname “the Pilgrim Pope.”

Others by Paul VI, according to the Vatican, included a 1970 trip with stops in Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ceylon — today Sri Lanka — and the Philippines, where a would-be assassin unsuccessfully attempted to stab him at Manila airport.

His successor, Pope John Paul I, never got the chance to travel, dying just over a month after he ascended to the papacy.

But Pope John Paul II, who followed in 1978, picked up where Paul VI left off and by the time of his death in 2005, was the most traveled pope in history; a title he holds to this day.

He made his first of two visits to the Philippines, one of Asia’s most Catholic countries, in 1981 in a trip that also took him to Pakistan, Guam, Japan and Anchorage, Alaska, according to the Vatican.

Over the years he would visit Asia many times, including trips to South Korea, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, East Timor, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.

In a notable moment from his 1986 trip to India, he was accompanied by Mother Teresa to her home for the poor in Kolkata, meeting and blessing its residents. Reports at the time said the pope was visibly moved by the visit, and Mother Teresa later called it “the happiest day of my life.”

John Paul II also visited Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific island nations of Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Pope Francis caresses a child in Popemobile as he arrives for Holy Mass at Tokyo Dome Monday, Nov. 25, 2019, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

His successor, Benedict XVI, became pope at an advanced age and did not travel as frequently or as far afield, but did visit Australia in 2008 for World Youth Day, according to the Vatican.

Francis, who took over from Benedict after he resigned in 2013 due to declining health, has already been to the Asia-Pacific region several times, with visits to countries including South Korea, Sri Lanka, the Philippines , Bangladesh, Thailand, Japan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia .

In his 2017 visit to Myanmar, also known as Burma, Francis famously met with Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Ky i, the democratically-elected leader who was ousted in the military in 2021, which has given rise to today's civil war .

This time his Sept. 2-13 trip takes him to Indonesia , Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore.

Of interesting historical note: the last pope to have left Italy before Paul VI was Pius VII, though he did so involuntarily.

Captured by French forces in Rome in 1809, Pius VII had been captive for three years when the French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte , ordered him moved near Paris in 1812. As Napoleon’s empire crumbled, he was released and returned to Rome in 1814.

APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO SRI LANKA AND THE PHILIPPINES (12-19 JANUARY 2015)

MEETING WITH YOUNG PEOPLE

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

Sports field of Santo Tom á s University, Manila Sunday, 18 January 2015

[ Multimedia ]

Impromptu speech of the Holy Father

Dear Young Friends,

When I speak spontaneously, I do it in Spanish. No? Because I don’t know the English language. May I do it? Thank you very much! Here is Father Mark, a good translator!

First of all, some sad news. Yesterday, as Mass was about to begin, one of the towers fell, like that one over there, and injured a young lady working there and she died. Her name is Cristal. She was helping in the organization of that Mass. She was 27 years old. She was young like you and she was working for a group called “Catholic Relief Services”. She was a volunteer. I would like all of us, together, you who are young people just like her, to pray for a moment in silence, and then to call upon our heavenly Mother. Let us pray.

(Silence … Ave Maria)

Let us also say a prayer for her mother and father. She was their only child. Her mother is flying in from Hong Kong. Her father has come to Manila to wait for her mother.

(Our Father…)

It is a joy for me to be with you this morning. I greet each of you from the heart, and I thank all those who made this meeting possible. During my visit to the Philippines, I wanted in a particular way to meet with young people, to listen to you and to talk with you. I want to express the love and the hopes of the Church for you. And I want to encourage you, as Christian citizens of this country, to offer yourselves passionately and honestly to the great work of renewing your society and helping to build a better world.

In a special way, I thank the young people who have offered words of welcome to me: Jun, Leandro and Rikki. Thank you very much.

And the small… the small representation of women. Too small! Women have much to say to us in today’s society. Sometimes we are too “machista”; we don’t make room for women. Women are able to see things differently than men. Women can ask questions that we men just don’t get. Pay attention. She [pointing to Jun’s friend] today asked the one question that doesn’t have an answer. And she couldn’t say it in words. She had to say it with tears. So that, when the next Pope comes to Manila, there should be more women (applause).

I thank you, Jun, for being so brave in talking about your experience. As I just said, your question, deep down, is almost unanswerable. Only when we are able to weep over the things that you experienced, can we understand and give some kind of response. The great question for everybody is: “Why do children suffer?”. Why do children suffer? Only when our hearts can ask this question and weep, can we begin to understand. There is a worldly compassion which is completely useless. You said something about this. A compassion which, at most, makes us reach into our pocket and take out a coin. If Christ had that kind of compassion, he would have passed by, cured three or four people, and then returned to the Father. Only when Christ wept, and he was capable of weeping, did he understand our troubles. Dear young men and women, our world today needs weeping. The marginalized weep, those who are neglected weep, the scorned weep, but those of us who have relatively comfortable life, we don’t know how to weep. Certain realities of life are seen only with eyes that are cleansed by tears. I ask each one of you to ask: Can I weep? Can I weep when I see a child who is hungry, on drugs and on the street, homeless, abandoned, mistreated or exploited as a slave by society? Or is my weeping the self-centred whining of those who weep because they want to have something else? This is the first thing I would like to say to you. Let’s learn to weep, the way [Glyzelle] taught us today. Let’s not forget this witness. She asked the big question – why do children suffer? – by weeping; and the big answer which we can give, all of us, is to learn how to weep.

In the Gospel, Jesus wept. He wept for his dead friend. He wept in his heart for the family which lost its daughter. He wept in his heart when he saw the poor widowed mother who was burying her son. He was moved and he wept in his heart when he saw the crowds like sheep without a shepherd. If you don’t learn how to weep, you are not a good Christian. And this is a challenge. Jun Chura and his friend who spoke today posed this challenge. When they ask us: Why do children suffer? Why does this or that tragedy occur in life?, let us respond either by silence or with a word born of tears. Be brave. Don’t be afraid to cry!

Then we heard from Leandro Santos, who was the second to speak. He asked questions about information and technology. Today, with so many kinds of media, we are informed, even over-informed. Is this a bad thing? No. It is good and useful, but we do run the risk of information overload. We have plenty of information, but maybe we don’t know what to do with it all. We risk becoming “museums”, storing up all sorts of things but not knowing what to do with them. We don’t need young people who are storehouses, but young people who are wise.

You can ask me: Father, how can I become wise? This is another challenge: the challenge of love. What is the most important lesson which you have to learn at the University? What is the most important lesson that you have to learn in life? It is learning how to love. This is the challenge which life sets before you today. Learning how to love. Not just how to accumulate information. There comes a time when you don’t know what to do with it all. It’s a storehouse. Unless, through love, all this information can bear fruit.

For this to happen, the Gospel proposes to us a serene and tranquil thing to do. It is to use the three languages: the language of the mind, the language of the heart and the language of the hands. All three together, harmoniously: what you think, you feel and you do. Your information descends to the heart, moves it and gets translated into action. And all this in a harmonious way: I think what I feel and do, I feel what I think and what I do, and I do what I think and what I feel. The three languages. Are you ready to repeat these three languages? Thinking, feeling and acting. Say those words back to me. And all of this harmoniously.

True love is both loving and letting oneself be loved. It is harder to let ourselves be loved than it is to love. That is why it is so hard to achieve the perfect love of God, because we can love him but the important thing is to let ourselves be loved by him. True love is being open to that love which was there first and catches us by surprise. If all you have is information, you are closed to surprises. Love makes you open to surprises. Love is always a surprise, because it starts with a dialogue between two persons: the one who loves and the one who is loved. We say that God is the God of surprises, because he always loved us first and he waits to take us by surprise. God surprises us. Let’s allow ourselves to be surprised by God. Let’s not have the psychology of a computer, thinking that we know everything. What do I mean? Think for a moment: the computer has all the answers: never a surprise. In the challenge of love, God shows up with surprises.

Think of Saint Matthew. He was a good businessman. He also betrayed his country because he collected taxes from the Jews and paid them to the Romans. He was loaded with money and he collected taxes. Then Jesus comes along, looks at him and says: “Come, follow me”. Matthew couldn’t believe it. If you have some time later, go look at the picture that Caravaggio painted about this scene. Jesus called him, like this ( stretching out his hand ). Those who were with Jesus were saying: “[He is calling] this man, a traitor, a scoundrel?” And Matthew hangs on to his money and doesn’t want to leave. But the surprise of being loved wins him over and he follows Jesus. That morning, when Matthew was going off to work and said goodbye to his wife, he never thought that he was going to return in a hurry, without money to tell his wife to prepare a banquet. The banquet for the one who loved him first, who surprised him with something important, more important than all the money he had.

So let yourselves be surprised by God! Don’t be afraid of surprises, afraid that they will shake you up. They make us insecure, but they change the direction we are going in. True love makes you “burn life”, even at the risk of coming up empty-handed. Think of Saint Francis: he left everything, he died with empty hands, but with a full heart.

Do you agree? Not young people who are “museums”, “storehouses”, but young people who are wise. To be wise, use the three languages: think well, feel well and act well. And to be wise, let yourselves be surprised by God’s love, then go out and burn life!

Thank you for your contribution today!

The one who came with a good idea to help us to see how to get ahead in life was Rikki. He talked about all his activities, everything he is doing, everything that young people are doing, all the things that they can do. Thanks, Rikki, thanks for all that you and your friends are doing.

But I have a question. You and your friends are giving and giving, helping other people. But what about you? Do you let them give something to you? Ask yourselves, in your heart. In the Gospel we just heard, there is a phrase I think is the most important of all. The Gospel says that Jesus looked at that young man and loved him. When we see Rikki and his friends we like them because they do really good things, but Jesus tells us what is the most important thing. Jesus says: “Only one thing is lacking”. Let’s each of us listen silently to these words of Jesus: “Only one thing is lacking to you”.

What is lacking to me? To all of you, whom Jesus loves so much because you give so generously to others, I ask: “Do you let people give you that other kind of wealth that you don’t possess?”

The Sadducees and the teachers of the Law in Jesus’ day gave much to the people: they gave the Law, they taught, but they never let the people give them anything. Jesus had to come so that he could be moved by people. How many young people – I’m not talking about you – but how many young people like you here today know how to give, but have not yet learned how to receive?

Only one thing is lacking. Become a beggar. That’s what is lacking; learning to beg from those to whom we give. This is not easy to understand. Learning to beg. Learning to receive from the humility of the people we help. Learning to be evangelized by the poor. The persons we help, the poor, the sick, orphans, have much to give us. Will I become a begger and also ask this? Or am I sufficient and will I only give? You who live by always giving, and think that you need nothing, do you realize that you are poor yourself? Do you realize that you are very poor and that you need what they can give you? Do you let yourself be evangelized by the poor, by the sick, by those you assist? This is what can help all those people who are committed like Rikki to trying to give to others: it is learning to stretch out our own hands from our poverty.

There are a couple of points which I had prepared. The first, and I have already said it, is about learning to love and to be loved. There is another challenge, the challenge of integrity. And the challenge of concern for the environment. This is not only because this country, more than many others, is likely to be seriously affected by climate change.

Finally there is the challenge of caring for the poor. Loving the poor. Your bishops want you to look at the poor in a special way this year. Do you think about the poor? Do you do anything for the poor? And do you ask the poor to give you that wisdom which they have? This is what I want to say to you. Pardon me that I read practically nothing of what I had prepared. But there is a phrase which gives me a little bit of consolation: “Realities are greater than ideas”. “Realities are greater than ideas”. And the reality which [the young people who spoke] described, your reality, is greater than the ideas which I had prepared. So thank you! Thank you very much! And pray for me!

Prepared speech of the Holy Father

In a special way, I thank the young people who have offered words of welcome to me. They have expressed eloquently, in your name, your concerns and worries, your faith and your hopes. They have spoken of the difficulties and the expectations of the young. Although I cannot respond to each of these issues at length, I know that, together with your pastors and among yourselves, you will prayerfully consider them and make concrete proposals for action in your lives.

Today I would like to suggest three key areas where you have a significant contribution to make to the life of your country. The first of these is the challenge of integrity . The word “challenge” can be understood in two ways. First, it can be understood negatively, as a temptation to act against your moral convictions, what you know to be true, good and right. Our integrity can be challenged by selfish interest, greed, dishonesty, or the willingness to use other people.

But the word “challenge” can be also understood positively. It can be seen as invitation to courage, a summons to bear prophetic witness to what you believe and hold sacred. In this sense, the challenge of integrity is something which you have to face now, at this time in your lives. It is not something you can put off until you are older or have greater responsibilities. Even now you are challenged to act with honesty and fairness in your dealings with others, young and old alike. Do not avoid the challenge! One of the greatest challenges young people face is learning to love. To love means to take a risk: the risk of rejection, the risk of being taken advantage of, or worse, of taking advantage of another. Do not be afraid to love! But in love, too, maintain your integrity! Here too, be honest and fair!

In the reading we have just heard, Paul tells Timothy: “Let no one have contempt for your youth, but set an example for those who believe, in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity” ( 1 Tim 4:12). You are called, then, to set a good example, an example of integrity. Naturally, in doing this, you will encounter opposition, negativity, discouragement, and even ridicule. But you have received a gift which enables you to rise above those difficulties. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit. If you nurture this gift by daily prayer and draw strength from sharing in the Eucharist, you will be able to achieve that moral greatness to which Jesus calls you. You will also be a compass for those of your friends who are struggling. I think especially of those young people who are tempted to lose hope, to abandon their high ideals, to drop out of school, or to live from day to day on the streets.

So it is essential not to lose your integrity! Not to compromise your ideals! Not to give in to temptations against goodness, holiness, courage and purity! Rise to the challenge! With Christ, you will be – indeed you already are! – the architects of a renewed and more just Filipino culture.

A second key area where you are called to make a contribution is in showing concern for the environment . This is not only because this country, more than many others, is likely to be seriously affected by climate change. You are called to care for creation not only as responsible citizens, but also as followers of Christ! Respect for the environment means more than simply using cleaner products or recycling what we use. These are important aspects, but not enough. We need to see, with the eyes of faith, the beauty of God’s saving plan, the link between the natural environment and the dignity of the human person. Men and women are made in the image and likeness of God, and given dominion over creation (cf. Gen 1:26-28). As stewards of God’s creation, we are called to make the earth a beautiful garden for the human family. When we destroy our forests, ravage our soil and pollute our seas, we betray that noble calling.

Three months ago, your Bishops addressed these issues in a prophetic Pastoral Letter. They asked everyone to think about the moral dimension of our activities and lifestyles, our consumption and our use of the earth’s resources. Today I ask you to do this in the context of your own lives and your commitment to the building up of Christ’s kingdom. Dear young people, the just use and stewardship of the earth’s resources is an urgent task, and you have an important contribution to make. You are the future of the Philippines. Be concerned about what is happening to your beautiful land!

A final area in which you can make a contribution is one dear to all of us. It is care for the poor . We are Christians. We are members of God’s family. No matter how much or how little we have individually, each one of us is called to personally reach out and serve our brothers and sisters in need. There is always someone near us who is in need, materially, emotionally, spiritually. The greatest gift we can give to them is our friendship, our concern, our tenderness, our love for Jesus. To receive Jesus is to have everything; to give him is to give the greatest gift of all.

Many of you know what it is to be poor. But many of you have also experienced something of the blessedness that Jesus promised to “the poor in spirit” (cf. Mt 5:3). Here I would say a word of encouragement and gratitude to those of you who choose to follow our Lord in his poverty through a vocation to the priesthood and the religious life; by drawing on that poverty you will enrich many. But to all of you, especially those who can do more and give more, I ask: Please, do more! Please, give more! When you give of your time, your talents and your resources to the many people who struggle and who live on the margins, you make a difference. It is a difference that is so desperately needed, and one for which you will be richly rewarded by the Lord. For, as he has said: “you will have treasure in heaven” ( Mk 10:21).

Twenty years ago, in this very place , Saint John Paul II said that the world needs “a new kind of young person” – one committed to the highest ideals and eager to build the civilization of love. Be those young persons! Never lose your idealism! Be joyful witnesses to God’s love and the beautiful plan he has for us, for this country and for the world in which we live. Please pray for me. God bless you all!

Copyright © Dicastero per la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

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Vatican: Pope may visit Philippines early 2015

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This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

MANILA, Philippines – A visit by Pope Francis to the Philippines in January or February 2015 is “under study,” the Vatican confirmed Friday, May 16, according to the Catholic News Service (CNS).

Quoting Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, the CNS said the Pope will possibly stop by Sri Lanka if he visits the Philippines.

Fr Lombardi says #PopeFrancis trip to Philippines, with stop in Sri Lanka, "under study" for Jan. or Feb. 2015 — Catholic News Svc (@CatholicNewsSvc) May 16, 2014

Francis has long said he wants to visit the Philippines, which is Asia’s most predominantly Catholic country.

Once calling this Southeast Asian country his “beloved Philippines,” Francis sent a video message to Filipinos in October 2013 – his first papal message in English. (READ: Pope to PH: Don’t get tired of mercy )

“Don’t get tired of bringing the mercy of the Father to the poor, the sick, the abandoned, the young people, and the family,” Francis said in his video message for the Philippine Conference on New Evangelization at the University of Santo Tomas. (Watch the entire video message below) 

Shortly after he was elected Pope, Francis told Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle he has “high hopes for the Philippines.”

“When I approached Pope Francis to assure him of the closeness and collaboration of the Filipinos, he said, ‘I have high hopes for the Philippines. May your faith prosper, as well as your devotion to Our Lady and mission to the poor,'” Tagle said after the conclave that elected Francis.

Evaluating Francis’ papacy one year later, Tagle described the Pope’s “simple” gestures as “grand in their simplicity.” Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Cardinal Quevedo said Francis stands out because he “is able to laugh.” (READ: Lessons from the Pope who is ‘able to laugh’ )

The Philippine government  has invited  Francis to visit the Philippines.

The last time a Pope visited the Philippines was in 1995, when the late John Paul II led World Youth Day in Manila. – Rappler.com

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My "pope francis' 2015 papal visit in the philippines" experience.

Let me share to you my experience on Pope Francis' 2015 Papal Visit in Manila.

January 17, 2015

Pope Francis is now on his way to the airport for a visit to #Tacloban and #Palo in #Leyte. #PopeFrancisPH #the_PH A video posted by ! Pinoy Adventurista (Mervz) (@pinoyadventurista) on Jan 16, 2015 at 3:06pm PST

Pope Francis is now back at the Apostolic Nunciature in #Manila after visiting #Tacloban and #Palo #Leyte. #PopeFrancisPH #PopeFrancisTYSM #the_PH #Philippines A video posted by ! Pinoy Adventurista (Mervz) (@pinoyadventurista) on Jan 16, 2015 at 11:15pm PST

January 18, 2015

I feel blessed to see #Pope #Francis for the 3rd time while he's on his way to #QuirinoGrandstand for this afternoon's #mass. #popefrancis #popefrancisph #PopeFrancisTYSM #Manila #Philippines #papalvisitph #PapalVisit2015 #the_PH #Luneta #Pinas #Pilipinas #pinoy #PinoyAdventurista #video A video posted by ! Pinoy Adventurista (Mervz) (@pinoyadventurista) on Jan 17, 2015 at 11:37pm PST

"Thank you Pope Francis for visiting the Philippines and for inspiring us Filipinos to hold stronger to our faith! Thank you for showing your simplicity, humility, love, mercy and compassion to all the Filipinos, especially to the poor and the needy. I am truly happy to get the chance to see you and be blessed by you. Have a safe flight back home and I hope to see you again soon!"

Follow my adventures on youtube @pinoyadventurista, 0 comments :, post a comment.

Looking for Budget Travel Guide Blogs, Hotel Reviews, and Sample DIY Itineraries? Welcome to Pinoy Adventurista, "Your Next Ultimate Adventure Starts Here!" Pinoy Adventurista is one of the Top Travel Blogs in the Philippines and the World. In 2013, he visited all the 81 provinces in the Philippines.