Pope puts the ‘hip’ back into worship

Pope Francis might one day go down in history as the man who helped put the “hip” back into worship. He’s comparatively young and spent much of his life as a priest with the poor and the downtrodden… and he’s more relaxed and open than any of his predecessors.

So, it was no surprise to see him reaching out to the youth of the world in his traditional Palm Sunday mass in St Peter’s Square in Rome.

He said: “Dear young people, you have it in you to shout…”

He went on: “It is up to you not to keep quiet. Even if others keep quiet, if we older people and leaders, so often corrupt, keep quiet, if the whole world keeps quiet and loses its joy, I ask you: Will you cry out?”

It is time that the world – the older people running it anyway – listened to the voices of the future, our young people, rather than regarding them as an interesting marketing demographic.

While we should never lose sight of the fact that wisdom comes with the years, we should also welcome those fresh, uncynical voices. We must allow them to shout and, instead of trying to silence them, we should listen…

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