Believe in a new humanity that is stronger than evil, Pope tells young

Plea comes as masses held for murdered French priest

POPE FRANCIS has encouraged hundreds of thousands of young people gathered in southern Poland to “believe in a new humanity” which is stronger than evil and refuses to use borders as barriers.

His appeal came at the end of World Youth Day, a week-long event which draws young Catholics to a different city every three years in a multilingual spiritual pep rally.

It also coincided with a gesture of solidarity in France in which Muslims attended Catholic Masses in churches and cathedrals after the brutal killing of an 85-year-old French priest in Normandy.

The event in Poland was Francis’s main focus during his pilgrimage to Poland, which also included meditation at the Auschwitz death camp and a plea to God to keep away a devastating wave of terrorism.

For a second straight day, a huge crowd filled a green field in the gentle countryside outside Krakow for Francis, whose fiveday trip introduced the Argentine to eastern Europe.

Some of the faithful had camped out overnight after an evening of entertainment and prayer with the Pope drew 1.6 million people, according World Youth Day organisers.

Yesterday’s faithful numbered at least hundreds of thousands, similar to the number seen at the Pope’s other public appearances in the overwhelmingly Catholic country in the past days.

He used several encounters with the young pilgrims – from mega-gatherings to a private lunch with only a dozen of them from five continents – to encourage a new generation to work for peace, reconciliation and justice.

God, said Francis in his final homily of the pilgrimage, “demands of us real courage, the courage to be more powerful than evil, by loving everyone, even our enemies”.

In France, between 100 and 200 Muslims gathered at the towering Gothic cathedral in Rouen, only a few miles from SaintEtienne-du-Rouvray where Fr Jacques Hamel was killed by two teenage attackers on Tuesday.

“We’re very touched,” Archbishop Dominique Lebrun told broadcaster BFMTV.

“It’s an important gesture of fraternity. They’ve told us, and I think they’re sincere, that it’s not Islam which killed Jacques Hamel.” Outside the church, a group of Muslims were applauded when they unfurled a banner: “Love for all. Hate for none.”