Pope Francis led an estimated 800,000 people in a meditation on the scourges of violence, poverty and intolerance Friday at World Youth Day, as the Portuguese government weighed in on an incident of intolerance directed at LGBTQ+ pilgrims attending the big Catholic youth festival.

Lisbon’s central Eduardo VII park was packed for Francis’ evening Way of the Cross prayer, one of the most solemn events in the days-long gathering. St. John Paul II launched these festivals of faith in the 1980s to try to inspire the next generation of Catholics, and young people from around the world have flocked to Lisbon in droves for Francis’ first edition since the coronavirus pandemic.

Francis had to quiet them down as the crowd erupted in the traditional World Youth Day chant of “This is the youth of the pope,” when he arrived on stage at sunset. He seemed to want to get right down to the seriousness of the dramatic re-creation of Christ’s crucifixion, urging them to “think of your own suffering, your own miseries, fears, desires.”

Saying there was no greater love than dying for others, as Jesus did, he urged them to not be afraid of loving. “Loving is a risk, but a risk worth taking.”

After he spoke, the crowd was led in prayer though a series of meditations that touched on problems facing young people today: violence, addiction, social media pressures, broken families, economic crises, intolerance and alienation.

The prayer took place against the backdrop of an incident of intolerance against LGBTQ+ Catholics attending World Youth Day that took on greater weight Friday when the Socialist government issued a statement demanding that pilgrims respect one another.

According to participants, a group of about 10 people, reciting the Lord’s Prayer in Latin and holding up crucifixes, tried to disrupt a Mass being celebrated in a Lisbon church for members of the LGBTQ+ Catholic community. According to the presiding priest, the Rev. Jose Nunes, the LGBTQ+ group was wary of possible trouble and had tipped off the police, who were keeping watch and led the protesters away after the Mass

incident, Nunes told Portuguese radio station TSF.

YOUNGSTOWN DIOCESE YOUTH DAY OBSERVANCE

Locally, the Diocese of Youngstown welcomed young adults ages 18 to 39 to the World Youth Day Summer Festival at St. Robert Bellarmine Church in Cortland. The event began at 6 p.m. Friday and will conclude with Mass with Bishop David Bonnar at 7 p.m. today.

The festival will include guest speakers, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament with praise and worship, a rosary procession, food and fellowship. It is sponsored by the Diocese of Youngstown’s Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry, which is directed by the Rev. Ryan Furlong, who is pastor at St. Robert, St. Thomas the Apostle in Vienna and St. William Church in Champion.