This Saturday, May 18, after meeting the young people of Verona, Pope Francis went to the Arena stadium, where he answered several questions in front of eleven thousand people.
The event was marked by several musical performances and by the testimony of men and women from different countries who addressed their questions to Pope Francis about topics such as leadership, immigration or peace.
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What type of leadership should you have?
First, a woman asked Pope Francis about what type of leadership he can develop, and the Holy Father highlighted that where there is “strong individualism, community disappears.”
Likewise, he assured that feeling like “a hero” poisons authority. For this reason, he stated that if the idea we have of a leader is that of a solitary person who decides, “then we are having an impoverished vision,” which also puts an end to creative ideas.
“None exists without the others, none can do everything alone. The authority we need is one that is able to recognize its own strengths and limits,” he assured.
In this sense, he pointed out that authority is above all “collaborative” and that “in a society, if there is no participation, things do not work,” he said.
How can we help migrants?
Later, a woman from Doctors Without Borders asked Pope Francis about migration and how to build peace and listen to the victims.
The Pontiff highlighted that “it is the Gospel that tells us to stand on the side of the small, the weak, the forgotten” and that Jesus “breaks conventions and prejudices.”
“To put an end to all forms of war and violence, we must be at the side of the little ones, respect their dignity, listen to them and make their voice heard without being filtered,” said the Pontiff.
Also, he encouraged them to “get to know the little ones and share their pain. And take sides with them against the violence of which they are victims, moving away from indifference and its justifications.”
According to the Holy Father, “it is the conversion that changes our lives and the world.” He also denounced the “slave” work that many children do to earn a living and lamented the “suffering” of the little ones, for which “we are all responsible.”
He stated that “we can win the Nobel Prize from Pontius Pilate” because we are experts in “washing our hands.”
How to find justice and care for the earth?
Next, two environmentalist women asked her about caring for the earth and justice in societies.
In his response, Pope Francis assured that “the digital revolution of recent years has allowed us to be constantly connected” and specified that “we should have more time and, instead, we always find ourselves in a hurry, chasing last-minute urgency.” ”.
“The enormous challenge before us is to go against the current to rediscover and preserve these natural rhythms. In order to do so, it is important to build the contexts in which this can be experienced, that is, the relationships and places,” he expressed.
How to learn to experience conflict in a healthy and constructive way?
The Holy Father lamented that currently “there are conflicts and tensions” and stated that “the absence of conflict does not mean that there is peace, but rather that we have stopped living, thinking, and spending ourselves for what we believe in.”
Later, he noted that “we are often tempted to think that the way out of conflicts and tensions is to eliminate them: I ignore them, I hide them, I marginalize them. By doing so, I remove an uncomfortable but also important part from reality.”
The Holy Father assured that “we do not have to be afraid of conflicts” and urged “dialogue” and listening in order to “mature what we have experienced.”
About the war in the Holy Land
Especially moving was the testimony given by a young man whose parents were murdered on October 7 in Israel and by a Palestinian who lost his brother in the war, who asked Pope Francis about peace.
After hugging them, the Pontiff excitedly assured that their suffering is the same as that of all people and highlighted that both had the courage to embrace each other. Along these lines, he stated that “hugging” is a project of the future.
Later, Pope Francis asked for a moment of silence to pray for peace and encouraged everyone to commit to doing something to end wars.
Likewise, he asked not to stop sowing peace and becoming spectators of the so-called “inevitable” war.
Almudena Martínez-Bordiú
I am a graduate in Journalism and Advertising from the CEU San Pablo University in Madrid. Specialized in religious information in Spain since 2015. I have been a senior correspondent for ACI Prensa and EWTN Noticias in the Vatican for two years and I am currently a European correspondent based in Spain.