Pope Francis Focuses Cuba Speeches on Youth, Avoiding Ideology

Upon his arrival to Cuba this past week, Pope Francis addressed a crowd of 150,000 in the city of Holguin, encourages Cuba's youth to avoid being "boxed in" by ideologies.

While addressing the crowd of 150,000, Francis encouraged Cubans "to slowly overcome our preconceptions and our reluctance to think that others, much less ourselves, can change."

"Do you believe it is possible that a tax collector can be a servant?" Francis continued, adding "Do you believe it is possible that a traitor can become a friend?"

Francis continued his theme of focusing on the country's youth while addressing a group in Havana, saying: "If I find a young person without hope, I've said this before, 'a young retired person.' There are young people who seem to have retired at 22 years old." 

"They are young people with existential sadness, they are young people who have committed their lives to a basic defeatism," The pope added.

The pope also addressed a speech in Havana about the importance of valuing the poor.

"Love poverty like you love your mother," the pope told worshippers gathered at an evening prayer service in the capital. ""When one seeks in his interior preferences the smallest, the most abandoned, the sickest, the one no one pays attention to, who no one loves, the smallest one, and serves the smallest one, he is serving Jesus in a superlative manner."