The youth made their voice heard in Copacabana

The cry of the Catholic faithful echoed yesterday in the throats of the crowd, which chanted support phrases for pope Francis. “This is the youth of the Pope,” was the most heard words in Rio de Janeiro, at the opening of the World Youth Day.

The opening mass was celebrated on Copacabana beach, where resounded this  phrase shouted in Spanish, also Catholic devotees also chanted the name of the respective countries of origin, and their flags which gave the beach resort  an international color.

The crowd collapsed Rio’s metro sustem, which also suffered a technical failure which paralyzed almost the whole network for about two hours. The subway closed  the station Cardeal Arcoverde, the nearest to the place, due to the excessive flow of people who had been on the docks.

“Dear young people, Christ has confidence in you and entrusted you his mission: go, make disciples”, wrote Francis through his account on the social network Twitter, hours before the start of the multitudinous mass that the Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, Orani Tempesta, would officiate– as representative of the Pontiff.

Not far away, police sought to control demonstrators protesting for the public investment of  Brazil to receive the Pope Francisco. There were several arrests and injured people, but nothing major happened.