APARECIDA, Brazil: Pope Francis, receiving another rapturous welcome in Brazil, yesterday urged young people to shun the “ephemeral idols” of money and pleasure and cherish traditional values to help build a better world.
On the third day of his week-long visit for World Youth Day, a biennial Church gathering being celebrated in and around Rio de Janeiro, he landed by helicopter in Aparecida, 260km west of the coastal metropolis.
The city houses a shrine of the Virgin Mary that is venerated as the patroness of Brazil, home to the biggest Roman Catholic population in the world. It is also the site where Francis, then a cardinal in Argentina, cemented his place as a leader of the Church during a 2007 conference attended by Pope Benedict XVI.
The ongoing World Youth Day events, which are expected to attract more than 1 million people from around the world, are an effort by the Vatican to galvanize young Catholics at a time when rival denominations, secularism and distaste over sexual and financial scandals continue to lead some faithful to abandon the Church.
Security around the pope yesterday appeared much more organised than upon his Monday arrival in Rio, where adoring crowds at one point surrounded his car. Reuters
