Francis calls youth to shake up the Church

Watching World Youth Day from afar, my favourite moment was the address of Pope Francis to the Argentine youth — a meeting he had specially asked to be added to the schedule. Some 5,000 packed the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Sebastian, while another 30,000 waited outside in the rain. The Holy Father gave what is becoming a hallmark of his new pontificate — an address that was spontaneous and passionate that left everyone energized, even if a little unsure of what he meant.

“Let me tell you what I hope will be the outcome of World Youth Day: I hope there will be noise,” the Holy Father said. “Here there will be noise, I’m quite sure. Here in Rio there will be plenty of noise, no doubt about that. But I want you to make yourselves heard in your dioceses, I want the noise to go out, I want the Church to go out onto the streets, I want us to resist everything worldly, everything static, everything comfortable, everything to do with clericalism, everything that might make us closed in on ourselves. The parishes, the schools, the institutions are made for going out ... if they don’t, they become an NGO, and the Church cannot be an NGO. May the bishops and priests forgive me if some of you create a bit of confusion afterwards. That’s my advice. Thanks for whatever you can do.”

That’s the English translation provided by the Vatican. The original Spanish word was “lío,” which the Vatican chose to translate as “noise.” Most of the journalists translating on the fly took the advice of their Spanish colleagues and translated it much more strongly: “I want a mess. We knew that in Rio there would be great disorder, but I want trouble in the dioceses!”