Happiness is not an app you can download on your
mobile phone, Pope Francis told thousands of
teenagers on Sunday at a mass to mark a weekend
dedicated to youth.
"Freedom is not always about doing what you want.
In fact it is the gift of being able to choose the right
way," he said in a homily punctuated by regular
bursts of applause from the crowd on a packed St
Peter's Square.
"Your happiness has no price. It cannot be bought
and sold: it is not an application you download on a
mobile phone. Even the latest version cannot help
you to grow and become free in love."
An estimated 70,000 teenagers were in Rome for a
weekend of events to celebrate Francis's Jubilee
year dedicated to the theme of mercy.
In a surprise move on Saturday, the 79-year-old
pontiff heard confessions from 16 of them and a
video message from him was broadcast at a rock
and rap concert in the Stadio Olimpico.
One of the teenagers chosen to confess to the
leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics said she
had been trembling as she approached the chair on
which the pope was sitting in St Peter's Square.
"But as soon as I sat down I had the feeling of being
next to a normal person rather than the pope.
Francis is really one of us," Anna Taibi, 15, told La
Repubblica newspaper.
The Sicilian teenager said she had been touched by
Francis's tenderness as he listened to her
confession.
"I expected him to give me a penance ... instead he
absolved me and let me go."
The importance of mobile phones to contemporary
teenagers was also reflected in Francis's message
to the concert.
Clutching an iPhone, he told his audience that living
without Jesus was like not having any signal.
"Always be sure to go where there is a network:
family, parish, school," he said.
