Pope Francis meets Kenyan youth
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met with young people at the Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi on Friday morning where he addressed issues including corruption and tribalism.
Below find a section for the Pope’s words to youth at the Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi.
Thank you very much for the Rosaries you brought for me, thank you for your presence, your enthusiastic presence here. Thank you Lynette and thank you Manuel.
I ask myself something on the basis of all the questions that were asked by Lynette and Manuel. Why do divisions, wars and deaths occur? Fanatism, and divisions among young people? Why is there that desire to destroy? In the first page of the Bible, after all those wonderful things that the Lord had done , a brother kills another brother. The spirit of evil takes us to destruction and the spirit of evil takes us to a lack of unity, it takes us to tribalism, corruption and drugs. It takes us to a destruction out of fanatism. How do we make it such fanatical idealism doesn’t take us to be robbed of a brother or a sister. There is a word which might uncomfortable to the ear, but I don’t want to avoid it. You know it before me. You showed this word when you brought these expressions of Rosaries that you brought for me. The Bishop used it in the preparations with prayers for this meeting today. A man or a woman loses the worst of their humanity when they forget how to pray, because they feel powerful, because they don’t feel the need to ask the Lord for help in the face of so many tragedies. Life is full of difficulties, but there are different ways of looking at difficulties or you see that something that destroys stops you , or you regard them as a real opportunity. To all of you is open the choice, for me is this a path of destruction or is it an opportunity to overcome this difficulty for me, for a member of my family and for this country? Young people we don’t live in heaven, we live on earth and earth is full of difficulties and not only of opportunities but sometimes invitations that will lead you astray towards evil. But there is something that all of you have which is big, the capacity to choose. Which path do you want to choose? Which of these two do I want? To choose the path of difficulty and division or the path of opportunity, opportunity to overcome myself and overcome difficulties . There are some other difficulties which you mentioned which are real challenges and before that a question. Do you want to overcome challenges or be overcome by them? You’re like the sportsmen who come here, the women and men, all those who sold the ticket to others and have put the money in their pockets. You have to choose. Lynette mentioned challenge, tribalism, it can destroy, it can mean having your hands hidden behind your backs and having a stone in each hand to throw to others. Tribalism can only become with the ear, with the heart and with your hand. With your ear. What is your culture, why are you like this? Why do your cousins have these customs? Do they feel inferior or superior and with a heart? Once we’ve heard the response with our ears then it passes through to our hearts and then I extend my hand. If you don’t dialogue with each other, if you don’t listen to each other, then you’re going to have the division like dust, like a worm that grows in society. Yesterday was pronounced as a day of prayer and reconciliation. I want to invite you all today, to the young to you, to invite Lynette and Manuel to come up now and that we hold each other’s hands, lets hold hands together, lets stand up as a sign against bad tribalism. We’re all a nation, We are all a nation! That’s how are hearts must be. Tribalism isn’t just raising our hearts today, it’s an expression of our desire, of our hearts and this tribalism is a work that we must carry out every day against this tendency, to overcome this tendency of tribalism, it is a daily endeavour . It’s a work of the ear, you have to listen to others, it’s a work of opening your heart to others and it’s a work of your hands, you offer your hands to others.