(ZENIT News / Lisbon , 04.08.2023).- On Friday morning, August 4, after cekebrating Mass in private in the Apostolic Nunciature, Pope Francis went by car to the Vasco da Gama Garden where, at 9:00 am he heard the Confessions of some WYD young people. Then he went by car to the Parish Center of Serafina.
Before leaving the Nunciature, the Holy Father met with Maria da Conceição Brito Mendonça, aged 106, who was born on the day of the Fatima apparition on May 13, 1917, and with the young woman Edna Pina Lopes Rodrigues, who is suffering from a grave illness and to whom the Pope sent an affectionate and prayerful message last June.
After hearing the Confessions of some WYD young people, Pope Francis met with representatives of some Care and Charity Centers of the Serafina Parish Center, present at the meeting, as were the Ajuda de Berço Family House and the Accrediting Association.
After the opening hymn and the welcome of the Parish Priest and of the Center’s Director, the presentations took place of the Serafina Parish Center, the Ajuda de Berço Family House and the Accrediting Association. The Pontiff pronounced an address there.
At the end of the meeting, the Our Father prayer, the Final Blessing and the singing of a hymn, the Holy Father returned to the Apostolic Nunciature in Lisbon where, at 12 o’clock, he lunched with the Patriarch of Lisbon, Cardinal Manuel Clemente, and with 10 young people of different nationalities. Before the lunch, Pope Francis met briefly with Israeli journalist Henrique Cymerman.
On his return to the Nunciature at the end of the morning, the Pontiff received a visit of a delegation of the KAICIID International Dialogue Center, accompanied by Spanish Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot.
On greeting the delegation, the Pope thanked them for their visit and addressed a few words to those present on the value of fraternity and dialogue and the danger of monologue and proselytism.
Then Pope Francis conversed with Rahim Aga Khan, son of the Leader of the Ishmaelite community, which has its Center in Lisbon.
Finally, the Pontiff received a group of men religious and individuals of different Confessions and Christian denominations involved in the ecumenical and inter-religious commitment of the Portuguese Church.
Pope Francis thanked those present for the lived fraternity, their effort for the dialogue and he recommended that young people be cared for, who “are joyful, but not superficial,” and who run the risk of being “anesthetized” by the world that surrounds them.
