For World Youth Day

“For World Youth Day” is Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of August. The video this month begins with a series of clips from past editions of World Youth Day.

It then shows Pope Francis responding to several young people from different continents who ask their questions in various languages.

The first group, in Brazil, asks the Pope, “When I go to the church in my neighborhood, I see only old people. Is the Church only for old people?”. The Pope responds that “the Church is not an old people’s club any more than it is a youth club. If it becomes something for old people”, he explains, “it will die”. He then calls to mind Saint John Paul ii ’s conviction that “if you live with young people you become young yourself”, and he stresses that “the Church needs young people so it doesn’t grow old”.

The next group, in the Philippines, asks about the reason for the theme of this year’s edition: “Mary arose and went with haste”. The Pope explains that “as soon as Mary knew she was going to be the mother of God, she didn’t stay there taking a selfie or showing off”, but rather, she immediately “set out on a journey, in haste, to serve, to help. You too”, he tells young people, “have to learn from her to set out on a journey to help others”.

The final question, from young people in Côte d’Ivoire, is about the Holy Father’s hopes for World Youth Day in Lisbon. He says, “I would like to see a seed for the world’s future. A world where love is at the center, where we can sense that we are sisters and brothers. We are at war; we need something else. A world that is not afraid of witnessing to the Gospel. A joyful world — because if we Christians have no joy, we are not credible, no one will believe us”. The video concludes with a joint invitation from the young men and women: “Let us pray that the World Youth Day in Lisbon will help us young people to set out on the journey, witnessing to the Gospel with our own lives”.

Available online at www.thepopevideo.org and translated into 23 languages, the video for the prayer intention for August was created and produced by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, in cooperation with La Machi Agency and the Dicastery for Communication.