Pope Francis urges students in Portugal to fight economic injustice and protect the environment
abcnews.go.comPope Francis is challenging university students to make the world a more just and inclusive place
CASCAIS, Portugal — From a university campus to a seaside town, Pope Francis challenged young people on Thursday to make the world a more just and inclusive place, as he focused the second day of his Portugal trip on inspiring students to use their privilege to combat global warming and economic inequalities.
Francis received a warm welcome first at the Catholic University in Lisbon, one of Portugal’s top institutions of higher learning. He then had a more intimate, informal encounter with young people in the former fishing village of Cascais, where he was serenaded with a mournful performance of the traditional Portuguese fado, meaning fate or destiny.
Francis is in Portugal through the weekend to attend World Youth Day, the big Catholic jamboree that St. John Paul II launched in the 1980s to encourage young Catholics in their faith. The Argentine Jesuit has picked up John Paul’s mantle with gusto as he seeks to inspire the next generation to rally behind his key social justice and environmental priorities.
He's also using his private time in Lisbon to meet with individual groups of pilgrims to offer words of encouragement: A group of Ukrainians who left behind war; Turkish pilgrims who survived February’s devastating earthquake; and relatives of a French catechist who had a fatal fall while on her Youth Day pilgrimage.
In his remarks at the university Thursday morning, Francis urged the students to take risks and reject the temptation to merely perpetuate the status quo — the “present global system of elitism and inequality” — with an attitude of self-preservation.
“An academic degree should not be seen merely as a license
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