Below is a translation of Pope Francis’ Angelus address today, following the Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square:
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Before the Angelus
I greet all of you who participated in this celebration and all who have joined us via television, radio and other media.
Today, we celebrate the 31st World Youth Day, which will culminate at the end of July in the great world meeting in Krakow. The theme is «Blessed Are the Merciful, for They Will Receive Mercy» (Mt 5,7). My special greeting goes to the young people present here, and extends to all the young people throughout the world. I hope that many of you can come to Krakow, home to St. John Paul II, the founder of World Youth Days. To his intercession, we entrust the final months of preparation for this pilgrimage, in the context of the Holy Year of Mercy, will be the Jubilee of the Young People at the level of the Universal Church.
Here with us are many young volunteers from Krakow. Returning to Poland, they will take to the leaders of the nation the olive branches gathered from Jerusalem, Assisi and Monte Cassino and blessed today in this Square, as an invitation to cultivate intentions of peace, reconciliation and fraternity. Thank you for this wonderful initiative; go forward with courage!
And now we pray to the Virgin Mary, to help us to live Holy Week with spiritual intensity.
[Original text: Italian]
[Translation by Deborah Castellano Lubov]
