‘Sinapul ni Pope’: Youth, religious thank Pope Francis for bull’s eye messages
January 19, 2015 1:31pm
Pope Francis set aside most of his prepared speeches in English during his five-day visit here in the Philippines, asking his audience to allow him to speak Spanish "from the heart."
 
But regardless of the language used by the Pope in various events in Manila, representatives from the youth and the religious said the Holy Father's responses hit home with the issues facing their respective sectors today.
 
In interviews with GMA News Online following the papal visit to the University of Santo Tomas on Sunday, the two young men who spoke before the Pope said the pontiff's spontaneous speech -- albeit in Spanish -- enlightened them.
 
"Sobrang sinapul na niya 'yung issue nating kabataan ngayon," said law student Leandro Santos II, who represented the Filipino college student. 
 
For his part, Rikki Macolor, representative for youth volunteers during Yolanda relief operations, said he's still trying to figure out what the Pope meant when he said "learn how to beg."
 
However, he said that as a whole, the Pope's message is an invitation for the youth to "be more compassionate even as we are getting older."

"Di ko pa rin alam kung paano siya ipa-process because he told me to beg. Siguro right now what I will do is -- hindi naman ako manlilimos -- but I will try to understand what he's trying to say, then put that to good use to help other people," Macolor said.

Engineer Rikki Macolor had a chance to take a selfie with Pope Francis at the Encounter with the Youth event on Sunday, January 18, 2015, at University of Santo Tomas. Photo: Rikki Macolor

'He really took the time'
 
Pope‘s words for Filipinos

     Most of Pope Francis' message during his visit to the Philippines were delivered in Spanish. Here are some excerpts from the remarks he delivered. 
     During the Mass with clergymen and religious: "The great danger is a certain materialism which can creep into our lives and compromise the witness we offer.
     Only by becoming poor ourselves, by stripping away our complacency, will we be able to identify with the least of our brothers and sisters."
     In meeting with families*: "To dream how will your daughter or son be. It is not possible to have a family without such dreams... When you lose this capacity to dream, then you lose the capacity to love and this energy to love is lost."
     During the Mass for Yolanda survivors in Tacloban*: "So many of you have lost everything. I don’t know what to say to you. But the Lord does know what to say to you.
     Some of you have lost part of your families. All I can do is keep silent...But please know, Jesus never lets you down.  Please know that the love and tenderness of Mother Mary never lets you down."
     In encounter with the youth*: "Today, with so many means of communications, we are overloaded with information. Is that bad? Not necessarily.
     It is good and it can help. But there is a real danger of living in a way of accumulating information... We run the risk of becoming museums of young people that have everything but without knowing what to do with them. We don’t need youth museums but we do need holy young people."
     At the Concluding Mass in Luneta: "We forget to remain, at heart, children of God. That is sin: to forget at heart that we are children of God. For children, as the Lord tells us, have their own wisdom, which is not the wisdom of the world. That is why the message of the Santo Niño is so important. He speaks powerfully to all of us. He reminds us of our deepest identity, of what we are called to be as God’s family." * — message delivered in Spanish Rose-An Jessica Dioquino/RSJ, GMA News
Santos said he was amazed "that he (the Pope) really took the time to answer our questions."
 
"We thought predetermined na 'yung sasabihin niya kasi na-submit naman sa kanila 'yung testimonials, pero na-incorporate niya 'yung tears, 'yung crying, because of Glyzelle," he said.
 
At Sunday's encounter, the Pope deviated from a prepared speech after 12-year-old Glyzelle Palomar was reduced to tears when she asked, "Bakit po pumapayag ang Diyos na may ganitong nangyayari?" referring to the abuses, poverty, and abandonment of children. 
 
While he said he did not have an answer to her question, the Pope delivered a nearly 39-minute speech to the rain-soaked crowd that consented for him to use Spanish.
 
In his speech, the Pope called on the youth delegates to have to courage to cry, as Jesus did by suffering with his people, as well as "to think well, to feel well, [and] to do well," among other points.
 
'Affirmation' of vocation
 
Prior to this encounter, the Pope officiated his first Mass in the Philippines on Friday, which was exclusively for some 2,000 bishops, priests, and religious men and women.
 
 
The participants, selected from all 88 dioceses in the Philippines, said the Pope's message to them during the homily strengthens them in their vocation.
 
"Merong malakas na affirmation at sana maka-attract pa ng ibang magpapari, magmamadre, o kung hindi man, 'yung maglilingkod sa Panginoon," Bishop Francisco de Leon of the Diocese of Antipolo told GMA News Online in an interview.
 
For Sr. Gloria Solis of Bacolod, the homily "makes us strong as religious," particularly because of the temptations and difficulties of their vocation.
 
"Talagang nabubuhay ang aming pananampalataya, lalo na sa aming mga religious na marami rin kaming nae-encounter na trials, minsan hindi namin alam how to go about it," she said.
 
Her companion, Sr. Ma. Norma Marchan of Dipolog -- who even took down notes during the homily -- added: "As the Pope says, we are ambassadors of Christ, so we are inspired to continue doing good as we are His right hand." 
 
Dean Jerome Cruz, a seminarian, the Pope's visit provides more inspiration for them to pursue the priesthood.
 
"Personally, may dagdag na inspirasyon," he told GMA News Online. "Sinasabi niya na tayo pong mga Katoliko dapat maging proud tayo sa pagiging Katoliko natin, dahil kapag nili-live po natin ang faith natin nang may joy, makikita po natin makaka-attract tayo ng ibang tao, and kahit hindi sila Katoliko, makikita nila kung gaano kasaya maglingkod sa simbahan, kung gaano kasaya maging Kristiyano."
 
'Speak from the heart'
 
The Pope has spoken in Spanish during several of his events here in the Philippines though he had his prepared speeches.
 
According to Vatican spokesperson Fr. Federico Lombardi, it was because the Pope "desires to speak from the heart than from the mind." 
 
“Every time that we are in a particularly intense situation, the Pope desires to speak from the heart,” Lombardi was quoted by the Catholic News Agency as saying during a press briefing Saturday night.  

The Pope, an Argentine, has likewise admitted, "My English is so poor," whenever he would ask his audience's permission to speak in his native tongue. — RSJ, GMA News

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