Pope Francis tells young people ‘learn how to listen’ in video published after death
Pope Francis greets young people gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Wednesday general audience on April 17, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Apr 27, 2025 / 17:45 pm (CNA).
In a video message published after his death, but recorded in January, Pope Francis encouraged young people to work on listening well to others.
The video, shared by the Italian weekly magazine “Oggi,” was made public one day after the funeral Mass of Pope Francis, who died at the Vatican on April 21.
In the video, recorded on Jan. 8, Pope Francis addressed a group of teens and young adults participating in “Listening Workshops,” an initiative started by the Italian Luca Drusian.
According to Vatican Media, the idea behind the workshops is for young people to discuss different topics while experiencing the beauty of both listening to others and being heard.
“Dear boys and girls, one of the most important things in life is to listen — to learn how to listen,” Francis said in the recording, taken in his Santa Marta residence.
“When someone speaks to you, wait for them to finish so you can really understand, and then, if you feel like it, respond. But the important thing is to listen,” he said, explaining they should not rush to give an answer.
The pope said, “look closely at people — people don’t listen. Halfway through an explanation, they’ll answer, and that doesn’t help peace. Listen — listen a lot,” he urged.
Francis also told young people to listen to their grandparents, who “teach us so much.”
The posthumous papal message was made public as an estimated 200,000 people, many of them teenagers, attended Mass in St. Peter’s Square on the morning of April 27.
The Mass was celebrated both as part of the Church’s second day of the “novendiales,” nine days of mourning, for Pope Francis, and as part of the Jubilee of Teenagers, which took place in Rome April 25-27.
The day after the late pope’s funeral and burial, tens of thousands of people visited his tomb in the Basilica of St. Mary Major. In the afternoon, Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, coadjutor archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, led vespers in a packed basilica. The College of Cardinals also attended.
