Yonkers, NY–Young people joined the Pope in the celebration of his birthday by announcing various US saints and blesseds. Ranging from American born to the naturalized citizen the described saints, and holy were St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St Francis Xavier Cabrini, Saint John Neumann, Blessed Kateri Tekawitha, Venerable Pierre Tousaint, and Padre Felix Varela many of whom had a connection to New York City and three, Blessed Kateri Tekawitha, St Francis Cabrini and St. Pierre Toussaint are buried in New York state. The latter two are interred in New York City.

The youth also sang to the Pope America the Beautiful, as an anniversary gift.

The Pope spoke to the youth and told them that all of those who are such models of holiness could be any one of us. They were inflamed with love of Jesus and the lives became remarkable journeys of hope. He explained to them of an abandonment to love “In the confidence that he is the final destination of every pilgrim.”

He acknowledged that the teenaged years are difficult and even acknowledged his own youth spent under the hostile regime of the NAZI’s. “My own years as a teenager were marred by a sinister regime that thought it had all the answers; its influence grew-infiltrating schools and civil bodies, as well as politics and even religion-before it was afully recognized for the monster it was. It banished God and thus became inprevious to anything true and good.”

He warned the youth against drug abuse and the horrors that begin with treating the human person as an object. He also told them that freedom must be considered a delicate value. He explained that freedom must be rooted in the cause of truth.

Addressing the dictatorship of relativism, the definition of which has defined his Papacy, he instructed the youth: “In truth’s place-or better said its absence-an idea has spread which, in giving value to everything indiscriminately, claims to assure freedom and to liberate conscience. This we call relativism.” Freedom is found in the truth, he added and that truth is Christ. “It is the discovery of the one who never fails us; the one whom we can always trust.

He called for them youth to engage in personal prayer, in the sacrament of confession, and goto mass he called to to recognize in those sacraments Jesus is at work.

The Pope reminded them to not be afraid of silence where they can hear Christ and he called them to pray for vocations, their own and others. The vocation to marriage and to priesthood or religious life.

“Friends I ask you, what about today? What are you seeking? What is God whispering to you? The hope which never disappoints is Jesus Christ.”

He reminded them that through personal prayer, silence and the Church’s liturgy, they will discover the particular vocation that Christ has for them.

The Pope ended his talk wth a greeting to the spanish speaking youth calling them to open their hearts to Jesus. Joking that he forgot the Spanish part, he spoke in Castellaño thanking them for their birthday greetings and inviting them to continue to be friends of Jesus and that they encounter his love which is the great treasure of their lives.

In both languages he invited the youth, to the World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia.

In response, the youth chanted such words as Ben-e-dict and We Love You.

See also webtvcn technology in the service of evangelization