Be brave and do not flee, the Pope exhorts African youth
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Be brave and do not flee, the Pope exhorts African youth

Be brave and do not flee, the Pope exhorts African youth

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(AGI) Bangui, Nov 29 - The Pope exhorted the youth of theCentral African African Republic (CAR) to be brave and notflee. "Fleeing and going to far away places is not a solution.You must be brave. Do you understand? Brave in forgiving, inlove, in making peace," Pope Francis told the youth of Banguiin front of the Cathedral, after he opened the Holy Door."Today we have opened the door to God's mercy. Confide in God,He is all merciful, He is love, He is capable of giving uspeace. This is why I told you to pray!". He explained: "Itis necessary to pray in order to resist, to not hate, to be theartisans of peace." He asked the group of young people: "Areyour hearts willing to resist? To fight for peace? To forgiveand love your beautiful homeland? To pray?". He went on: "I askyou to also pray for me, so that I may be a good bishop, a goodPope. Will you promise to pray for me?". The Pope's dialoguewith Central African youth started with the considerations ofone of the young men on banana trees. The Pope said: "Thisfriend who spoke in all of your name said that your symbol isthe banana tree, because the banana is the symbol of life, italways grows, always produces, gives life, nutrients, energy.The banana plant is very resistant. I think that this tells usvery clearly the way that's proposed to us during thisdifficult time of hatred and divisiveness: the way ofresistance. Dear friends, some of you want to go away, some ofyou want to leave. But escaping from the challenges that lifepresents is never a solution. We need to resist, to have thecourage to resist, to fight so that good can come. Those whoflee do not have the courage to give life. The banana treegives life and continues to reproduce, giving more and morelife because it resists, because it remains, because it'sthere." He continued: "Some of you might ask me 'butfather, what can we do? how do we resist?' I'm going to say twoor three things that may be helpful for you in order to resist.First of all, prayer! Prayer is powerful, prayer conquers evil,prayer brings us nearer to God, who is all powerful. The secondthing I'd like to say is work for peace. Peace is not found ina document you sign. That just remains there. Peace is foundevery day and peace is something that is done by hand, it'ssomething that artisans do, it's done with one's own life." Hethen asked: "But some of you might ask: 'how can I be anartisan of peace?' First, Never hate! And if someone does eviltoward you, try to forgive - never hate. A lot of forgiveness.And if you don't have hate in your heart, you will be a victor.And then you will be a victor of the most important battle oflife: victors of love, and out of love comes peace. Do you wantto be conquered or do you want to be victors? With love andwith forgiveness, you will be conquerors. With love you will bevictorious in life, love always wins, love will never allow youto be conquered. I wish you all the best - think of the banana.Think of resisting before difficulty. Escaping, going far away,is not a solution." (AGI). .
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