04/25/2025
Following the death of Pope Francis, the International Union of Guides and Scouts of Europe – UIGSE - would like to pay tribute to His Holiness.
📌In particular, we recall the audience on 3 August 2019, at the end of Euromoot, which brought together nearly 5,000 rovers and wayfarers from Europe and America on their way to the Vatican.
📢The message the Holy Father wanted to share with the young people was a powerful one: "Give and it will be given to you" (Gospel of Luke 6:38). A whole programme for life, encouraging them to "give without counting" (scout prayer), as an antidote to the individualism and indifference that so characterise our times. He relied on young people as generators of encounters.
📢He also recalled the dignity and uniqueness of the human person: each person has an irreplaceable mission, a unique gift to offer the world. In the words of Blessed Carlo Acutis, he encouraged young people not to become "photocopies".
📢He called on scouts to be bridge builders, not wall builders, seeing in our scouting a hope for a more united, fraternal and spiritual Europe.
🎼The Pope's words inspired the young people, who spontaneously began singing the Song of Promise, which everyone sang in their own language, expressing their joy and gratitude to the Holy Father.
📌Pope Francis had already sent a message to the 12,000 young scouts and guides gathered in Normandy, France, during Eurojam 2014.
📢He invited them to deepen their relationship and friendship with Jesus Christ through prayer, the sacraments and service, to defend life and human dignity, and encouraged them to follow Jesus' invitation: "Venite et Videte".
Following the example of the Pope, we want to live according to the Gospel, with faith, hope and charity, on our road to holiness.
🙏 We invite every guide and scout to pray for his soul, and we give thanks for his pontificate and for his support of our scout federation.
