At the end an especially intense day in Poland, Pope Francis ascended the balcony of the Archbishop of Krakow. He summed up this Friday as a 'day of pain.' In the morning he visited the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
In the afternoon, he went to a children's hospital with many terminally ill children and finally shared in the recitation of the Stations of the Cross with the youth. He asked the pilgrims who were waiting for him in the street an intense question that was prompted after his visit to the concentration camp.
POPE FRANCIS
'How much pain! How much cruelty! How is it possible that we humans, created in the likeness of God, are cabable of doing these things?'
He also explained that, unfortunately, the cruelty of Auschwitz is still present in the world.
POPE FRANCIS
'Today this cruelty exists. We do not say, 'Yes, we saw it 70 years ago.' As those people died by being shot, beaten or by gas. Today in many parts of the world, where there is war, it is the same. Jesus came because of this reality, to carry on with it. Now He asks us to pray: let us pray for all the 'Jesus' in the world.'
He prayed with pilgrims for those who are imprisoned, tortured or who are victims of war. Then he asked them to also not forget to pray for him.
