By Philip Pullella | VATICAN CITY
Pope Francis, starting Holy Week services leading to Easter, urged young people on Sunday to keep shouting and not allow the older generations to silence their voices or anesthetize their idealism.
Francis spoke a day after hundreds of thousands of young Americans and their supporters answered a call to action from survivors of last month’s Florida high school massacre and rallied across the United States to demand tighter gun laws. He did not mention the demonstrations.
The 81-year-old Roman Catholic leader led a long and solemn Palm Sunday service before tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square, many of them young people there for the Catholic Church’s World Day of Youth.
Carrying a woven palm branch known as a “palmurello,” Francis led a procession in front of the largest church in Christendom to commemorate the day the Bible says Jesus rode into Jerusalem and was hailed as a saviour, only to be crucified five days later.
Drawing on biblical parallels, Francis urged the young people in the crowd not to let themselves be manipulated.
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