By David Ramos, Diego López Colín
After celebrating Mass privately at the Apostolic Nunciature in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, Pope Francis held this Monday, September 9 (local time) – the fourth and last day of his visit to the country – a meeting with the young people at the Sir John Guise stadium. There, in a largely improvised speech, the Holy Father assured them that “in life the important thing is not not to fall, but not to stay fallen.”
The Holy Father arrived around 9:30 am at the stadium, where about 10,000 young people arrived.
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In his welcome message, Bishop John Bosco Auram, Bishop of Kimbe and associate bishop for youth, assured the Pope that “your presence strengthens and encourages us, gives us hope and challenges us to be authentic witnesses of a youthful life.” redeemed.”
Pope Francis then heard the testimonies of three young people: Patricia Harricknen-Korpok, Ryan Vulum and Bernadette Turmoni.
The concerns of young people in Papua New Guinea
Patricia Harricknen-Korpok, the first young woman to share her testimony, expressed concern about the pressure that “the attraction of the secular world and numerous religious values and beliefs” puts on “Catholic faith and morals.” Despite this, she stated that “we challenge ourselves to continue to be a light and a voice for the Catholic faith in Papua New Guinea.”
Young people in the country, he assured, work “for the common good and for the well-being of our people, especially for those who do not have a voice or who are on the margins of society.”
Ryan Vulum, in turn, highlighted the problem of living in “broken families or families with high expectations.” According to Vulum, many “find it very difficult to communicate with their parents, since they are not together or are separated.”
As a result of this, he noted that a large number of them “resort to the consumption of harmful substances.” Therefore, he encouraged “all Catholic couples in Papua New Guinea to receive and persevere in the sacrament of marriage so that they can become strong families, so that young people can feel secure and live better.”
Bernadette Turmoni, another young participant, addressed the serious problem of abuse within families. She stated that this evil “destroys the lives of young people, both men and women,” and stressed that victims feel “unloved, lose hope and can reach extreme situations such as suicide or abandonment of their families.”
He also questioned the growing poverty in the country, noting that, despite being rich in mineral resources, “poverty is on the rise,” creating “reasons why young people abandon their studies and resort to illegal activities.”
The young woman concluded her intervention by making a special request to Pope Francis: “Please pray for us, Holy Father.”
Young people, “the hope of the future”
The Holy Father assured the young people that “I did not want to leave here without meeting you, because you are the hope of the future.”
To address the questions of “How is the future built?” What meaning do we want to give to our lives?”, the Pope referred to the biblical story, contained in Genesis, of the Tower of Babel. “In it we see that two models are opposed, two opposite ways of living and building society. One leads to confusion and dispersion, while the other, to the harmony of the encounter with God and with the brothers,” he said.
Men “believed that they could leave God aside, that they could build a society without Him,” the Holy Father noted, going on to indicate that “then, their languages were confused, disorder was created, there was no possibility of communication among themselves.” and they abandoned the project.”
“Without God, without finding in Him a ‘language’ that unites us and keeps us in connection, we disperse, each one thinks only of himself and his own needs. And this is how isolation, confusion, disorder and conflict prevail,” he noted.
The Holy Father expressed his desire that all young people “speak the deepest language”, that of love.
“The Lord has created us to have a good relationship with others,” he indicated. “He has not created us for confusion but to have good relationships, and this is very important.”
The Pope then indicated that although hate is opposed to love, “there is something even uglier than hate: indifference towards others.”
“Indifference is a very ugly thing, because you leave others in the way, you are not interested in helping others,” he said, encouraging young people to “have the concern of the heart to take care of others.”
He also stressed that “there is a very important relationship in the life of the young person: it is closeness to the grandparents,” and asked everyone to shout: “Long live the grandparents!”
“In life we can all fall”
Leaving aside a large part of the speech he had prepared, the Pope addressed the young people again: “Can a young person make a mistake? And can a person make a mistake? And can an old man like me make a mistake? Faced with the affirmative response from the thousands of attendees at the meeting, the Pope said: “Yes, we can all make mistakes, all of us.”
“But the important thing is to realize the mistake,” he said, because “we are not Superman” and “we can make mistakes.”
“In life we can all fall, all of us,” he reiterated.
Pope Francis recalled that “there is a very beautiful song that I would like you to learn,” which “goes like this”: “In the art of climbing, what matters is not not falling but not staying fallen.”
“And if you see a friend, a colleague” who has fallen, he continued, “you have to look at him and help him get up.”
“Only in one situation in life can we look down on others: to help them get up,” he said.
In conclusion, the Holy Father reiterated to the young people that “in life the important thing is not not to fall, but not to remain fallen.”
At the end, assuring the young people that he prays for them, he asked them to “pray for me, because this work is not easy.”
“Thank you very much for your presence, thank you very much for your hope,” he said.
At the end of the meeting, Pope Francis gave his blessing and headed to the Port Moresby international airport, from where he will depart for East Timor, the third country he will visit on this 11-day apostolic trip to Asia and Oceania, the longest of his pontificate.
David Ramos
Graduated in Communication Sciences from the Universidad Privada del Norte in Trujillo, Peru. With more than 12 years of experience in Catholic journalism working at ACI Prensa, I have been based in Mexico since 2018. I have covered Pope Francis’ trips to Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Panama.
Diego López Colin
I am a graduate of Journalism at the Carlos Septién García School with experience in religious institutional communication. Since 2016 he has written for digital media and, since 2018, I have reported the most important news about Catholic events in Mexico for the EWTN news channel. He has been ACI Prensa correspondent in Mexico since 2023.