MAROUSSI, Greece (CNS) — Spending a bit of time with young people before leaving Greece, Pope Francis encouraged them to have the courage to hope, to dream and even to question their faith.

He met with Catholic teenagers and young adults from across Greece at St. Dionysius School in Maroussi, a suburb of Athens, Dec. 6. Three of them had a chance to briefly share their stories with him.

Having read their experiences beforehand, Pope Francis’ lengthy talk gave a detailed response to each of their concerns, revelations and questions with the understanding that their unique experiences also reflected something many other young people have in common.

For example, Katerina Binibini, whose family came from the Philippines, said she sometimes feels angry or jealous when she sees people without any faith easily coast through life without any problems, while as “a faithful Christian, I feel constantly put to the test.”

She said she finds it hard to explain her faith to others, especially when there is so much suffering or injustice in the world. But, nonetheless, she still recognizes the strength, graces and opportunities she has had because of her faith and is grateful for God’s love.

Pope Francis said all those moments of doubt in life are “vitamins” for the faith, making it stronger, more resilient, wiser and more mature.

“Faith is precisely that: a daily journey with Jesus who takes us by the hand, accompanies us, encourages us, and, when we fall, lifts us up,” he said. Never be afraid to reflect and ask questions because “you cannot walk this path of faith blind.”

Whenever the devil sows doubt in one’s heart, he said, always remember that faith “is not primarily about a list of things to believe and rules to follow,” but is the “reality, a beautiful truth that does not depend on us and that leaves us amazed: we are God’s beloved children!”

The wisdom inscribed on the Greek temple of Delphi, “Know thyself,” is still valid today, he said.

“Realize that your worth is in who you are and not what you have. Your worth is not in the brand of the dress or shoes you wear, but because you are unique,” he said.

This wisdom will serve them well to avoid, like Odysseus, the dangerous allure of the sirens’ song, the pope said. “Today’s sirens want to charm you with seductive and insistent messages that focus on easy gains, the false needs of consumerism, the cult of physical wellness, of entertainment at all costs.”

In response to Ioanna Vidali from Tinos, the pope talked about the importance of other people when it comes to growing in the faith. Vidali had explained the central role her mother and grandmother played in her life and faith, but described how, as she got older, “everything that seemed clear became complicated” to the point that she almost stopped believing in God.

But she said she came to realize that no matter how much she tried to turn away from him, he was always there, ready to guide and accompany her.

“The greatness of God’s love,” she said, is seen in the fact that he gave her the freedom to be wrong, and she seeks to share this “greatness” with other young people she serves.

Jesus makes himself known also through the people who are in one’s life, the pope said. “God does not hand us a catechism; he makes himself present through people’s life stories. He walks among us.”

Serving others is “the path to true joy! Helping others is not for losers, but for winners; it is the way to bring about something truly new in history,” he said.

“Don’t settle for posting a few tweets. Don’t settle for virtual encounters; look for real ones, especially with people who need you. Don’t look for visibility, but for those who are invisible in our midst. That is new, even revolutionary,” he added.

Lastly, Aboud Gabro, who escaped with his family from war-torn Syria, told the pope about the series of “miracles” that led to their safety and then being welcomed, integrated and thriving in Greece.

The pope said he was struck by his story of overcoming “so many refusals and a thousand difficulties” — a true modern-day odyssey.

Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, was also at a crossroads in life, wondering if he should stay home waiting for his father or go off on a wild search for him; the young man finally found the courage to set out on his adventure, the pope said.

This shows “the meaning of life is not found by staying on the beach waiting for the wind to bring something new. Salvation lies in the open sea, in setting sail, in the quest, in the pursuit of dreams, real dreams, those we pursue with eyes open, those that involve effort, struggles, headwinds, sudden storms,” the pope said.

“Don’t be paralyzed by fear: Dream big! And dream together,” the pope told the young people. “As with Telemachus, there will always be those who try to stop you,” but they are just “destroyers of dreams, the slayers of hope, incurably stuck in the past.”

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

ATHENS, Greece (CNS) — God the Almighty almost always chooses the least mighty people and the most desolate places to reveal the power of his love, Pope Francis said.

Celebrating Mass Dec. 5 in Athens’ Megaron concert hall, the pope touched on a theme he had explored in depth with Catholic leaders the day before: the blessing and spiritual advantage of being a small community without power and without pretenses.

Catholics make up less than 2% of the population of Greece; more than 90% of the country’s residents belong to the Orthodox Church.

Noting how the day’s Gospel says the word of God came to John the Baptist “in the desert,” Pope Francis said, “There is no place that God will not visit.”

“Today we rejoice to see him choose the desert, to see him reach out with love to our littleness and to refresh our arid spirits,” he said. “Dear friends, do not fear littleness, since it is not about being small and few in number, but about being open to God and to others.”

The late-afternoon Mass was the pope’s last public event in Greece. After Mass he was to host a private visit by Orthodox Archbishop Ieronymos II, head of the Orthodox Church of Greece, and the next morning he was scheduled to visit a Catholic school before returning to Rome, concluding a five-day trip that began in Cyprus.

Celebrating Mass in the Greek capital after having flown to and from the outlying island of Lesbos for a meeting with migrants, Pope Francis’ homily focused both on recognizing God at work where he is least expected and on the Advent challenge of conversion.

St. Luke’s description of the call of St. John the Baptist lists the civil and religious leaders in office at the time. “We might have expected God’s word to be spoken to one of the distinguished personages” mentioned in the reading, the pope said. “Instead, a subtle irony emerges between the lines of the Gospel: from the upper echelons of the powerful, suddenly we shift to the desert, to an unknown, solitary man.”

“God surprises us,” the pope told the 2,000 people at Mass. “His ways surprise us, for they differ from our human expectations; they do not reflect the power and grandeur that we associate with him. Indeed, the Lord likes best what is small and lowly.”

The Gospel teaches that “being powerful, well-educated or famous is no guarantee of pleasing God, for those things could actually lead to pride and to rejecting him. Instead, we need to be interiorly poor, even as the desert is poor.”

The day’s reading also called for conversion, something that sounds difficult, he said, because too many people think of it as a rallying of personal strength in a struggle for perfection.

But the Greek word for conversion — “metanoia” — means “‘to think beyond,’ to go beyond our usual ways of thinking, beyond our habitual worldview — all those ways of thinking that reduce everything to ourselves, to our belief in our own self-sufficiency,” he said.

“To be converted, then, means not listening to the things that stifle hope, to those who keep telling us that nothing ever changes in life,” the pope said. “It means refusing to believe that we are destined to sink into the mire of mediocrity.”

“Everything changes when we give first place to the Lord. That is what conversion is,” Pope Francis insisted. “As far as Christ is concerned, we need only open the door and let him enter in and work his wonders.”

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

ATHENS, Greece (CNS) — Like St. John Paul II before him, Pope Francis apologized to members of the Orthodox Church of Greece for the ways Catholics over the centuries had offended them, and he told Catholic leaders that they must embrace their minority status with humility.

“Here, today, I feel the need to ask anew for the forgiveness of God and of our brothers and sisters for the mistakes committed by many Catholics,” Pope Francis told Orthodox Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and all Greece.

Under heavy gray skies, Pope Francis made his way Dec. 4 from the Vatican nunciature to the archbishop’s office in Athens’ old city. He was driven to the nearby Catholic Cathedral Basilica of St. Dionysius the Areopagite only after his meeting with Archbishop Ieronymos, the spiritual leader of the majority of Greek Christians.

While Catholics and Orthodox have the same roots in the preaching of St. Paul and the teaching of the early church theologians and first ecumenical councils, “tragically, in later times we grew apart,” the pope said.

“Worldly concerns poisoned us, weeds of suspicion increased our distance and we ceased to nurture communion,” Pope Francis said. “Shamefully — I acknowledge this for the Catholic Church — actions and decisions that had little or nothing to do with Jesus and the Gospel — but were instead marked by a thirst for advantage and power — gravely weakened our communion.”

Pope Francis acknowledged there are some Christians who are not thrilled about ecumenism and its efforts to pray and work for the restoration of Christian unity and, in fact, as the pope arrived at the archbishop’s residence, an elderly Orthodox priest repeatedly shouted, “Pope, you’re a heretic.”

But convinced that communion is the path willed by Jesus who prayed his followers would be one, the pope told the Orthodox archbishop: “Let us fearlessly help one another to worship God and to serve our neighbor, without proselytism and in full respect for the freedom of others.”

To those who would object that evangelization is more central to the church’s mission than ecumenism is, the pope replied, “How can we testify before the world to the harmony of the Gospel, if we Christians remain separated? How can we proclaim the love of Christ who gathers the nations, if we ourselves are not united?”

And while the Catholic-Orthodox theological dialogue continues to discuss differences between the churches, their faithful have much they can and must do together, the pope said.

“Even now,” he said, “the Spirit urges us to care for the weak and poor and to bring their cause, paramount in the eyes of God, to the world’s attention.”

Archbishop Ieronymos, who is three months younger than Pope Francis, told him that at this stage — the pope will be 85 Dec. 17 — they basically have lived their lives and “enjoyed the beauties of God in nature and the environment. But what does the future hold in store for the younger generations?”

The COP26 conference on climate change was a big disappointment, the archbishop said, and he asked Pope Francis to join him in condemning the compromises made in Glasgow that failed to make a real difference to reduce carbon emissions.

Recalling how they visited the Greek island of Lesbos together in 2016, the archbishop told the pope, “It is such a relief to see your great sensitivity to the refugee and migrant issue.”

Praising Greek citizens who have come to the aid of refugees and thanking the pope for helping transfer migrants from Greece to Italy, Archbishop Ieronymos said it is time “to sound the alarm” and work “to stop the migration flow,” which, he said, is exploited by some countries and makes life difficult for the migrants, especially if they move to a country where there are few other people of their race or religion.

Going from the archbishop’s residence to the Catholic cathedral nearby, Pope Francis urged Catholics in Greece to be humble, patient, holy and helpful as they lived their faith as a tiny minority in the country.

“Being a small church makes us an eloquent sign of the Gospel, of the God proclaimed by Jesus who chooses the poor and the lowly, who changes history by the simple acts of ordinary people,” the pope told them.

“As church, we are not called to have the spirit of conquest and victory, impressive numbers or worldly grandeur. All this is dangerous. It can tempt us to triumphalism,” the pope told them. Instead, “we are asked to take our inspiration from the mustard seed, which appears insignificant, but grows slowly and quietly.”

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

ATHENS, Greece (CNS) — From Aristotle to St. Gregory Nazianzus, and from the Acropolis to the olive tree, Pope Francis drew from Greek history and culture to appeal for a faith that is lived in good works and a politics that truly seeks the common good.

Arriving in Greece from Cyprus Dec. 4, Pope Francis went directly from the airport to meetings with Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and then a large group of political, civic and cultural representatives.

“Here democracy was born,” he told the representatives. “Yet we cannot avoid noting with concern how today — and not only in Europe — we are witnessing a retreat from democracy.”

“Democracy requires participation and involvement on the part of all; consequently, it demands hard work and patience,” he said. “It is complex, whereas authoritarianism is peremptory, and populism’s easy answers appear attractive.”

A political stance that seeks only popularity and easy answers is not worthy either of the description politics or of a place in a democracy, Pope Francis said.

“Politics is, and ought to be in practice, a good thing, as the supreme responsibility of citizens and as the art of the common good,” he said. “So that the good can be truly shared, particular attention — I would even say priority — should be given to the weaker strata of society.”

Speaking before the pope, Sakellaropoulou told him the Christian churches’ preaching and work for “unity and concord” and their concern for migrants and refugees, the poor, the environment and all who are suffering because of COVID-19 are important not just for believers.

“It is directly related to the politics of care and humanity and paves the way for peaceful coexistence and prosperity for all of us,” she said. “The safeguarding of human dignity and social cohesion is the challenge that gives meaning to the relationship between ecclesiastical and secular authorities in a global society with inexhaustible potential, but also with painful contradictions.”

Pope Francis agreed. The history, philosophy and faith of the Greeks throughout the centuries urge people to look “toward the heights, toward God,” but also to look across the seas to recognize themselves as citizens not only of their cities or country, but of the world.

While setting aside individual or even national interests on behalf of the common good of all can sound utopic, the pope said, it is humanity’s only concrete hope.

Arriving in Athens just a few weeks after the annual olive harvest, the pope noted the tree is common on every shore of the Mediterranean and, like after the great biblical flood, can be “the symbol of recovery, of the strength to begin anew by changing our way of life, renewing our proper relationship with the Creator, other creatures and all creation.”

Migrants and refugees are a special group of people that need particular care now — and a greater helping hand from all European countries, not just Greece, the pope said. But many European countries, “prey to forms of nationalistic self-interest,” refuse to help and make the European Union appear to be losing its identity as “an engine of solidarity.”

“I would like to encourage once again a global, communitarian vision with regard to the issue of migration, and to urge that attention be paid to those in greatest need, so that, in proportion to each country’s means, they will be welcomed, protected, promoted and integrated, in full respect for their human rights and dignity,” he said.

Intelligent, European-wide policies for welcoming newcomers, he said, will guarantee “a future marked by peaceful coexistence with all those who increasingly are forced to flee in search of a new home and new hope. They are the protagonists of a horrendous modern Odyssey,” he added, referring to Homer’s epic poem.

Pope Francis ended his speech expressing the hope that “from this city, from this cradle of civilization, may there ever continue to resound a message that lifts our gaze both on high and toward others; that democracy may be the response to the siren songs of authoritarianism; and that individualism and indifference may be overcome by concern for others, for the poor and for creation.”

“These,” he said, “are essential foundations for the renewed humanity which our time, and our Europe, need.”