APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO PANAMA ON THE OCCASION OF THE 34th WORLD YOUTH DAY VIA CRUCIS WITH YOUNG PEOPLE
Campo Santa Maria la Antigua – Cinta Costera (Panama)
[…] Father, today your Son’s way of the cross continues:
it continues in the muffled cry of children kept from being born and of so many others
denied the right to a childhood, a family, an education; of children not able to play,
sing or dream…
it continues in women who are mistreated, exploited and abandoned, stripped of their
dignity and treated as nothing;
and in the saddened eyes of young people who see their hopes for the future snatched
away for lack of education and dignified work;
it continues in the anguish of young faces, our friends, who fall into the snares of
unscrupulous people – including people who claim to be serving you, Lord – snares
of exploitation, criminal activity, and abuse which feed on their lives.
Your Son’s way of the cross continues in all those young people and families who,
caught up in a spiral of death as a result of drugs, alcohol, prostitution and human
trafficking, are deprived not only of a future but also of a present. Just as they divided
your garments, Lord, their dignity is divided and mistreated.[…]
