"Dear boys and girls: let’s let Christ meet us!", it was the invitation of the Pope, who added: "One comes to Assisi to learn from Saint Francis the secret for recognising Jesus Christ and experiencing Him". "As in concentric circles he explained , Francis’ love for Jesus expands not just onto the Church but onto all things, as seen in Christ and for Christ", the others, the Creation, the commitment to peace. "If today inter-religious dialogue, especially after the Second Vatican Council, has become a common and inalienable heritage of Christian sensitivity, Francis went on Benedict XVI can help us dialogue in a genuine manner, without falling into an attitude of indifference for the truth or into an attenuation of our Christian announcement". Nowadays, warned the Pope, "the time has come for young people who, like Francis, will take things seriously and be able to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus. The time has come to look at the history of this just-started third millennium as at a history which needs, more than ever, to be leavened by the Gospel". Hence his invitation, inspired by John Paul II: "’Open the doors to Christ’. Open them as Francis did, without fear, without self-interest, without measure. Dear boys and girls, be my joy as you were John Paul II’s joy". Finally the Pope told them they will meet again in Loreto, in September, for the Agora of the young Italians.
