” “"Do not squander your youth. Consecrate it to the lofty ideals of faith and human solidarity". "You are the youth of the Church" and "you can be the protagonists of a new society", but the future "largely depends on the way you live the present": this is, briefly, the appeal made by Benedict XVI to the young of Brazil and Latin America, whom he met tonight in the municipal stadium of Pacaembu, "Paulo Machado de Carvalho", in São Paulo. Hence his exhortation "not to squander your youth". Do not try to escape it said the Pope. Live it to the full". "You are not only the future of the Church and of mankind, as if it were a sort of escape from the present. Conversely, you are the young present of the Church and of mankind. You are its young face". "Last night he added ,as I was flying over the Brazilian soil, I was already thinking of this meeting", "wishing I could hold all of you in a big, very Brazilian hug, and show the feelings I have deep in my heart" when I think of "the very special joy" I felt on the occasion of the WYD of Cologne. ” “
