VATICAN CITY (CNS): Pope John Paul II has encouraged Catholic young people to pray the Rosary in public without shame, saying Mary would help them reach the true happiness offered only by Christ.
‘Humanity has a decisive need for the witness of free and courageous young people who dare to go against the current and proclaim with force and enthusiasm their own faith in God, Lord and Saviour,’ he said in a message for World Youth Day 2003.
‘Don’t be ashamed to recite the Rosary alone, while going to school, to university or to work, along the street and on public transportation,’ the Pope said.
‘Get into the habit of reciting it among yourselves, in your groups, movements and associations. Don’t hesitate to suggest its recitation at home to your parents and brothers and sisters, because it revives and strengthens the bonds between family members,’ he said.
World Youth Day 2003 will be celebrated in most dioceses today (Palm Sunday).
The 82 year-old pontiff looked forward to the next international celebration of World Youth Day in 2005 in Cologne, Germany, telling young people that ‘the road is still long but the two years that separate us from that appointment can serve for intense preparation’.
