Shafaqna English–Pope Leo XIV urges African youth to reject every form of abuse or violence.
After flying to the southwestern Cameroonian city of Douala on Friday morning, Pope Leo XIV presided at Mass at the Japoma Stadium, joined by around 120,000 faithful.
As long as bread is not stolen in strife, hoarded through rationing, or wasted by those who gorged themselves, there is food for everyone, said the Pope.
Besides our material necessity, we also hunger for the bread of life in peace, freedom, and justice, and our every act of solidarity and forgiveness becomes “a morsel of bread for humanity in need of care,” he added.
“Yet this alone is not enough,” said Pope Leo. “The food that sustains the body must be accompanied, with equal charity, by nourishment for the soul—a nourishment that sustains our conscience and steadies us in dark hours of fear and amid the shadows of suffering.”
The Pope noted the richness of Cameroon’s natural resources, which stands in contrast to the material poverty many people face.
“Do not give in to distrust and discouragement,” he said. “Reject every form of abuse or violence, which deceives by promising easy gains but hardens the heart and makes it insensitive. Do not forget that your people are even richer than this land, for your treasure lies in your values: faith, family, hospitality, and work.”
Pope Leo invited African youth to follow the vocation that God sets out for them, so that they may be protagonists of their own future.
“Do not let yourselves be corrupted by temptations that waste your energies and do not serve the progress of society,” he said.
Source: Vatican News