POPE Francis has urged young people not to be silent and let their voices be heard during Palm Sunday celebrations.
The pope’s message comes on the heels of a meeting of young Catholics who told the Vatican they want a more transparent and authentic church. Chief among the concerns of youngsters was gender inequality.
The statement was also responding to demonstrations by tens of thousands of young people in the United States on Saturday.
The March for Our Lives protests were staged across the US to demand greater gun control, with similar demonstrations staged in London, Paris, Mauritius, Tokyo, Stockholm, Sydney, Geneva and Berlin.
Pope Francis said: “The temptation to silence young people has always existed.”
He cited the many ways to keep them quiet, “to sedate them, to keep them from getting involved, to make their dreams flat and dreary, petty and plaintive”.
But he told youths, “you have it in you to shout” even if “we older people and leaders, very often corrupt, keep quiet”.
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