Pope Francis presided over an especially large and youth crowd estimated at 90,000 to pray the noonday Angelus on August 12, 2018. The crowd included some 70,000 youth people from various dioceses of Italy, in Rome for weekend encounters with the Pope.
The events culminate a weeklong walking pilgrimage that some 40,000 young people began on August 3 through the territories of their dioceses, called “Per Mille Strade”, the Italian for “Across Thousand Roads”. The Pope joined the groud the evening of August 11, 2018, in Rome’s Circus Maximus. The gathering included questions from the young people, answers from the Holy Father, and musical entertainment.
The Holy Father’s Comments to Youth After the Angelus
In particular, I greet the young people of Italian dioceses, accompanied by their respective Bishops, their priests, and educators. Over these days you have shed your enthusiasm and your faith through the streets of Rome. I thank you for your presence and for your Christian witness! And in thanking you yesterday, I forgot to say a word to the priests, who are those closest to you: I thank the priests very much, I thank them for the work they do day after day, I thank them for their patience — because one needs patience to work with you all! The patience of priests . . . I thank them so much, so much, so much. And I’ve also seen many Sisters who work with you: I also thank the Sisters very much.
And my gratitude extends to the Italian Episcopal Conference, represented here by the President, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, who organized this meeting of young people in view of the forthcoming Synod of Bishops.
Dear young people, as you return to your communities, witness to your contemporaries and to all those you meet, the joy of the fraternity and the communion you experienced in these days of pilgrimage and prayer.
© Libreria Editrice Vatican
