Pope Francis Urges Youth To Raise Their Voices

Pope Francis kicked off Holy Week with a message for youth around the world, "It is up to you not to keep quiet." The message was delivered during the homily of the Palm Sunday mass at  St. Peter’s Square. 

“It is up to you not to keep quiet. Even if others keep quiet, if we older people and leaders, some corrupt, keep quiet, if the whole world keeps quiet and loses its joy, I ask you: Will you cry out?”

The crowd, which was filled with young people who were visiting the Vatican for the Catholic Church’s World Day of Youth responded with a resounding yes. 

The pope warned that the "temptation to silence young people has always existed" and there are many ways to "to make them keep quiet, ask nothing, question nothing."

There are many ways to silence young people and make them invisible. Many ways to anesthetize them, to make them keep quiet, ask nothing, question nothing. There are many ways to sedate them, to keep them from getting involved, to make their dreams flat and dreary, petty and plaintive.

The pope's message comes the day after tens of thousands of young people from around the world participated in the "March For Our Lives" rally. At the rallies held in major cities across the world, many people called for new gun control laws to help prevent mass shootings such as the one in Parkland, Florida that left 17 people dead and was the catalyst for the worldwide marches. 

Pope Francis did not mention the rallies during his homily but has been a critic of gun manufacturers in the past.

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