The Pope and youth

In a celebration reminiscent of the World Youth Day gatherings, the Holy Father prayed the rosary with University students from Rome and from various African nations via satelite on Monday of this week.

While Pope Benedict began each of the glorious mysteries by reciting the Our Father, students from various countries continued the recitation of the Hail Mary and the Glory Be to the Father, each in their own native tongues. This time of prayer also involved the recitation of litanies, a procession of the cross and various testimonies on the themes of reconciliation, justice and peace (the very themes being considered by the delegates to the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops, currently being held in Rome.

"Dear university students of Rome and Africa," the Pope encouraged, 'I ask you to be operators of intellectual charity, which is necessary to face up to the great challenges of contemporary history, in the Church and in society. At university you must be sincere and passionate seekers of truth, building academic communities of the highest intellectual standard, where it is possible to exercise and enjoy that open and vast rationality that paves the way to the meeting with God."

His Holiness also presented (symbolically) a copy of his recent encyclical Caritas in Veritate to the students, encouraging them to make it's teachings their own.