Francis went on to focus much of his response on the problem of discrimination against women in which women are treated as if they are in “a second category,” adding “but we see that today in the world women are the best leaders … and are superior to men in their ability to create community.”
“The capacity for motherhood gives women a much more effective position of action than men and this is important,” Pope Francis said.
“To sum up, no to discrimination … and yes to proximity, closeness,” he said. “This is what leads us to love.”
Pope Francis also addressed the issue of Catholic education, stressing the importance of having good faith formation so that young people know their faith well and are led to become “authentic Christians.”
In response to Elizabeth’s concern that Catholic students are mocked for their faith on campus, Pope Francis told her “Christians have always been persecuted from the very beginning.”
The pope warned that with persecution comes the temptation to “lukewarm Christianity” but underlined that “martyrdom is part of Christianity.”
In total, 12 students from Indonesia, Taiwan, the Philippines, South Korea, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand spoke to Pope Francis in the video call.
Hseih Hsiang, an electrical engineering student from Taiwan, told the pope: “Although Catholics are a minority in Taiwan, we have the freedom of sharing our faith without being threatened or not respected.”
In response to a concern from a student from Indonesia about technology isolating young people, Pope Francis said that technology can help, but it is not sufficient. He stressed the importance for young people to have a sense of belonging and asked the students to reflect on what is the real meaning of “belonging.”
The Building Bridges Initiative described the event as “a synodal encounter between Pope Francis and university students,” noting that the event was not officially part of the Synod on Synodality.
Pope Francis will travel to the Asia Pacific region Sept. 2–13 in which he will visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore.
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Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees. She is the author of “Blessed Carlo Acutis: A Saint in Sneakers” (Ignatius, 2023), https://ignatius.com/carlo-acutis-sscap/.