According to organizers and security forces, around 1.5 million young people took part in the service on Sunday morning in Tejo Park in Lisbon. 700 bishops and 10,000 priests concelebrated, KathPress reported on Sunday.
Around 3,000 young people from Austria attended. They were accompanied, for example, by bishops Hermann Glettler, Josef Marketz, Wilhelm Krautwaschl and Stephan Turnovszky.
Papa Francesco encouraged the participants to take the joy of the Lisbon days home and do good there. “If we return home as egoists, the light we take from here goes out. We will only return brightly if we love like Jesus.”
Francis encouraged the youth to listen to Jesus. “The whole secret is: Listen to Jesus. He teaches us the way of love. Listen to him. That’s all: everything there is to do in life is contained in those words.”
Most of the young people who took part had spent the night under the open sky on the banks of the Tejo. The previous evening, the Pope had led a long vigil there with prayers and songs.
World Youth Day – the world’s largest church event – ended after almost two weeks with the service on Sunday morning. The Pope had been taking part in the major event since Thursday, and the number of participants was growing every day.
