World Youth Day is a “unique experience” that allows people to get to know others from all over the world. Above all it favours relations between people of nations, often in conflict with each other.
This is the case for Indian and Pakistani Catholics, says Godfrey Malu, who hails from the Archdiocese of Bombay (Mumbai). So far, during his stay in Lisbon, he “met some young Pakistanis” who were “really happy to meet us”.
“We Indians and Pakistanis got together and took pictures,” he told AsiaNews, “showing that we are one body” of the Church. “Although we come from different nations (both nuclear powers), we are one,” he added. This enables us to “live a unique moment and reach out to one another.”
The young Catholics from Pakistan and India are but some of the million-strong sea of young people from around the world, meeting from 2 to 6 August in Lisbon, after heeding Pope Francis’s call to take part in the 37th World Youth Day.
Since his first meeting with Portuguese authorities, the pontiff has renewed his appeal for peace and the search for new ways of coming together and engaging in dialogue, even where walls and war keep people apart.