Pope Francis in Cairo: impromptu exchange with young people
(Vatican Radio) Friday evening saw an unscripted moment between Pope Francis and a group of some three hundred young people gathered in the small square before the entrance to the Apostolic Nunciature in Cairo, where the Holy Father stayed the night between Friday and Saturday.
After supper, the Holy Father went to greet the young people gathered the square, saying, “Good evening to you all, I’m glad to find you!”
“I know you have come on pilgrimage,” he continued, “is it true? If it is true, it is because you are brave!”
He went on to say, “[Saturday], we will have the Mass in the stadium, all together, and we will pray together and sing together and celebrate together! Before retiring [for the night], I would like to pray with you.”
Then Pope Francis prayed the Our Father with the young people, who recited the prayer in Arabic. “[N]ow,” he said, “I would like to give you the blessing, but before I do, each of you should think about the people about whom you care the most; think also of the people for whom you do not care, and in silence each of you pray for these people: for those whom you love and those you don’t love,” Pope Francis instructed.
Then he gave the Apostolic Blessing to the young people and all the people they carried in that moment in their hearts.
Pope Francis concluded the encounter with the words, “Long live Egypt!”