Pope Francis attended a theatrical performance in Rome by students on how the pandemic has affected young people on Thursday.
The Pope met with the Italian Minister of Education Patrizio Bianchi. And he communicated with a group of young people from 41 countries at the International Pontifical College Maria Mater Ecclesiae in Rome on 25 November.
“The faces of the pandemic,” in which performers covered their faces with decorated white masks to illustrate “the ‘face’ that the pandemic has left on young people,” the Pope said.
Many of the students involved had participated in weekly virtual meetings organized by Scholas Occurrentes to share how they were coping with uncertainty and isolation when their schools were closed amid pandemic lockdowns.
Pope Francis also listened to testimonies and answered a few questions from the young people.
A Rwandan boy whose parents fled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the 1994 genocide asked what the international community can do to help refugees.
“Refugees who are fleeing have only one thing on their mind: leaving,” Francis said, according to Vatican News.
The Pope pointed up that refugees are not people who leave their country for economic reasons, but those who “escaped so that they could live.”
The Holy Father asked the young people present to reflect on what lessons can be learned from the stories of refugees.