Roderick O’Brien

Abstract

　　Pope Francis was elected as Bishop of Rome and Head of the Catholic Church on 13 March 2013, and continued in office until his death on 21 April 2025. In this comparatively short time – a little over twelve years – Pope Francis reached out to young people throughout the world. Because he was Pope, his words were usually recorded and remain available today. This short paper will draw on his words to all youth, and his particular words to the youth of the Asia Pacific region. Surely less has been recorded of the initiatives or the response of youth, but there are some wonderful encounters, which we will include below.

A MISSION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

　　The Asia Pacific region is not the youngest in the world: that distinction belongs to Africa. In fact, the Asia Pacific region includes some of the oldest societies: Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan feature in the top 30 of aging societies. But some which rank among the youngest, including Afghanistan, Timor-Leste, and Papua New Guinea. And there may still be large numbers of young people in comparatively older societies: the Philippines, for example, has 30 million people aged between 10 and 24.

　　Writing for Radio Veritas Asia in Manila, Leahna Villajos called attention to the importance which Francis placed on young people: “Throughout his papacy, Pope Francis made it a hallmark of his mission to uplift and empower young people, seeing them not just as the future of the Church but as its vibrant present. He consistently called on the youth to be ‘protagonists of change’ and builders of a more just, compassionate, and inclusive world.” (Villajos, 2025)

　　Young people are listening to the Pope. One reporter sought responses from young people at Asian Youth Day in Daejeon, South Korea, in 2014. Among the young people was Para Deepak Raj, a youth from the archdiocese of Madras-Mylapore in India, who said it was very special to have the pontiff in Asia, especially for the first time during an Asian Youth Day. One of 41,000 youth present for Pope Francis' Aug. 17 Mass closing the Asian Youth Day, Raj said his presence “gives us a very special feeling that we are close to the heart of the Pope. The Church says that the youth are the future of the Church, so this is a very symbolic representation that the Church is giving a very high importance to the youth.” (Harris, 2014) Another reporter received positive responses from young people in Timor Leste. (Viera, 2024)

　　A key message to young people was encouragement – an encouragement based in love. For World Youth Day in Krakow (broadcast to the world) Francis said: “You, dear young man, dear young woman, have you ever felt the gaze of everlasting love upon you, a gaze that looks beyond your sins, limitation, and failings and continues to have faith in you and to look upon your life with hope? Do you realise how precious you are to God, who has given you everything out of love?” (Ellsberg, 2018, 164)

THE IMPORTANCE OF DIALOGUE

　　The last mission of Pope Francis to the Asia Pacific region concluded in Singapore, where he met with young representatives of various faiths at the Catholic Junior College. “If you dialogue as young people,” Francis said, “then you will be able to do so as citizens and as members of a community.” But Francis also had a warning for young people: Throughout history, he pointed out, “the first thing a dictatorship does is take away dialogue.” (Lubov, 2024)

　　In an Apostolic Exhortation to young people, Francis asked them to “go beyond their small groups and to build social friendship, where everyone works for the common good. Social enmity, on the other hand, is destructive. Families are destroyed by enmity. Countries are destroyed by enmity. The world is destroyed by enmity. And the greatest enmity of all is war. Today we see that the world is destroying itself by war… So find ways of building social friendship. It is not easy, it always means having to give something up and to negotiate, but if we do it for the sake of helping others, we can have the magnificent experience of setting our differences aside and working together for something greater. If, as a result of our own simple and at times costly efforts, we can find points of agreement amid conflict, build bridges and make peace for the benefit of all, then we will experience the miracle of the culture of encounter. This is something which young people can dare to pursue with passion.” (Francis, 2019, para 169) Young people become accustomed to dialogue when they set out to dialogue, and Francis constantly encourages young people to “build bridges”.

　　The Pope did not have to travel to meet young people from the Asia Pacific region. He also spoke with young people from South Asia in a video call, and urged them to dialogue: In his introduction to the call, Pope Francis said that to build bridges “means building bridges between people, between us, which is the opposite of building walls. Walls divide people, bridges unite people.” “We shake hands, we build bridges of friendship between men and women of different cultures, because the Gospel needs to become part of our culture, evangelizing culture and spreading the Gospel,” he said. (Allen, 2023)

EXPERIENCING A JUST WORLD

　　Not only did Pope Francis encourage young people to build a just world, he also desired that they should experience a just world. Francis wanted young people to be able to contribute to society through meaningful work which enables their growth. This means work which honours the individual and society. Francis condemned a world where young people are simply economic machines, trapped in a dehumanising cycle of work which only profits others. But condemnation, though needed, is not Francis’ primary message. Rather he encourages young people to themselves be the courageous agents of a new and just world.

　　Rather than simply exhort young people, Pope Francis also encouraged youth leadership through initiatives like The Economy of Francesco, a global movement uniting young economists and entrepreneurs to envision a new economic model grounded in justice, sustainability, and human dignity.

ENCOURAGING YOUNG WOMEN

　　During a visit to the Philippines in 2015, the Pope spoke spontaneously to many young people, listening to their experiences, and responding. He also took the opportunity to promote the participation of young women, saying: “And the small… the small representation of women. Too small! Women have much to say to us in today’s society. Sometimes we are too “machista”; we don’t make room for women. Women are able to see things differently than men. Women can ask questions that we men just don’t get. Pay attention. She [pointing to Jun’s friend] today asked the one question that doesn’t have an answer. And she couldn’t say it in words. She had to say it with tears. So that, when the next Pope comes to Manila, there should be more women (applause).” (Francis, 2015)

　　The Pope returned to this theme in Papua New Guinea, during his last visit to the Asia Pacific region. He listened to women who talked about their situation in society and in the church. He also departed from his prepared text to highlight the importance of women. (White, 2024)

　　An important encounter with women took pace in Seoul, South Korea, where the Pope chose to meet with seven women who were the victims of sexual slavery during the occupation by Imperial Japanese forces. (Tiezzi, 2014) Although these women were now very elderly, they were young at the time of their enslavement. Their presence reminds us that today young women are similarly victims and survivors of systematic rape and other sexual abuse in war.

MANY ENCOUNTERS, MANY THEMES

　　In this short recollection, we cannot mention every topic that has found a place in the encounters between youth and Francis. Some, including hope, peace-building, immigration, and care for our environment will be dealt with in other papers. For some other topics, there is simply not enough space here to deal with a rich and complex ministry spanning more than a decade.

　　Readers will understand that Pope Francis is not a social advocate, or a political reformer. Pope Francis is a religious leader, and his core message to young people is about their relationship with God, and through that relationship, our many relationships with our neighbour and with all creation. Although not present at Asian Youth Day in 2017, held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Francis sent a message of welcome. The Secretary of State passed on the message: The Pope, he said, “prays that young people from across Asia will listen ever more attentively to God’s call and respond with faith and courage to their vocation.” Looking ahead to the global World Youth Day gathering in Panama in 2019, Francis invited the youth to turn to Mary, the Mother of God as “a model of missionary discipleship, to speak to her as they would to a mother, and to trust always in her loving intercession.” “In this way, as they seek to follow Christ Jesus more closely, they too, like the young woman of Nazareth, can truly “improve the world and leave an imprint that makes a mark on history,” Francis said, giving his blessing and entrusting the youth and their families to Mary's intercession. (Catholic News Agency, 2017)

　　And readers will appreciate that the message of Francis for the young people of Asia Pacific, while thoughtfully attentive to the realities of life here, is not different from his messages to young people in other parts of the world.

A FINAL MESSAGE TO YOUNG PEOPLE

　　At Asian Youth Day in South Korea in 17 August 2014 , the Pope said to the thousands of young people that the phrase “Wake up!” in the AYD theme offers a reminder of the “duty to be vigilant, not to allow the pressures, the temptations and the sins of ourselves or others to dull our sensitivity to the beauty of holiness, to the joy of the Gospel….Young people of Asia: you are the heirs of a great testimony, a precious witness to Christ. He is the light of the world; he is the light of our lives!” Pope Francis said. Certain of Christ’s victory over death, “we can face the challenge of Christian discipleship today, in our own circumstances and time.” (Anon, 2014) These final words to youth are not an end, they are another step in a great dialogue. Readers can be certain that Pope Francis’ listening and speaking will not be forgotten when World Youth Day is held in South Korea in 2027. Now Pope Leo XIV will lead the event. It will also be the first World Youth Day to take place in Asia since Manila in 1995, as well as the first to ever be held in a Christian-minority country. (Kim, 2025)

Roderick O’Brien.

REFERENCES

• Allen, Elise Ann (2023) “Pope condemns ‘body shaming,’ plastic surgery in talk with Asian youth” CruxNow (28 September 2023) available at https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2023/09/pope-condemns-body-shaming-plastic-surgery-in-talk-with-asian-youth. [visited 20 September 2025]
• Anon, (2014) “’Asian Youth, Wake Up!’ The Church needs your witness, Pope says” Catholic News Agency (17 August 2014) available at https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/30309/asian-youth-wake-up-church-needs-your-witness-pope-says. [visited 20 September 2025]
• Catholic News Agency (2017) “Pope prays for openness, courage at close of Asian Youth Day” Angelus News (6 August 2017) available at https://angelusnews.com/news/vatican/pope-prays-for-openness-courage-at-close-of-asian-youth-day/. [visited 20 September 2025]
• Ellsberg, Robert (ed) (2018) Pope Francis: the Courage to be Happy: the Pope Speaks to the Youth of the World, Orbis Books, Maryknoll.
• Francis, Pope (2015) “Meeting with young people: Impromptu speech of the Holy Father” Holy See (18 January 2015) available at https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/january/documents/papa-francesco_20150118_srilanka-filippine-incontro-giovani.html. [visited 20 September 2025]
• Francis, Pope (2019) Apostolic Exhortation Christus Vivit, (25 March 2019) available at https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20190325_christus-vivit.html, [visited 19 September 2025]
• Harris, Elise (2014) “Pope Francis leaves Asian faithful energized after visit” Catholic News Agency (24 August 2014) available at https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/30347/pope-francis-leaves-asian-faithful-energized-after-visit, [visited 18 September 2025]
• Kim, Denis (2025) “World Youth Day 2027 in Korea: Context and Mission” Catholic Outlook (3 February 2025) available at https://catholicoutlook.org/world-youth-day-2027-in-korea-context-and-mission/. [visited 20 September 2025]
• Lubov, Deborah Castellano (2024) “Pope calls Singaporean youth to unity during interreligious dialogue” Vatican News (13 September 2024) available at https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2024-09/pope-calls-singapore-youth-unity-during-interreligous-dialogue1.html, [visited 18 September 2025]
• Tiezzi, Shannon (2014) “Pope Francis meets Korean ‘Comfort Women’” The Diplomat, (19 August 2014) available at https://thediplomat.com/2014/08/pope-francis-meets-korean-comfort-women/. [visited 20 September 2014]
• Vieria, Vonia (2024) “Youth Leaders reflect on Pope Francis’ visit to Timor-Leste” Australian Broadcasting Commission (Pacific Beat) (17 September 2024) available at https://www.abc.net.au/pacific/programs/pacificbeat/timor-pope/104359116, [visited 18 September 2025]
• Villajos, Leahna (2025) “Pope Francis Journey with Youth: from Rio to Seoul” Radio Veritas Asia (23 April 2025) available at https://www.rvasia.org/feature-story/pope-francis-journey-youth-rio-seoul, [visited 18 September 2025]
• White, Christopher (2024) “In Papua New Guinea, Pope Francis confronted with status of women in church, society” National Catholic Reporter (7 September 2024) available at https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/social-justice/papua-new-guinea-pope-francis-confronted-status-women-church. [visited 20 September 2025]

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