On
day five of his apostolic journey to Brazil for World Youth Day, Pope
Francis was driven to Rio de Janeiro’s Quinta da Boa Vista park, which
also houses the city’s zoo and National Museum of Natural History, to
hear the confessions of a group of young people. The park, whose name literally means “farm or park of the beautiful panorama” was once owned by the Jesuits (XVI-XVII c.) before the Company of Jesus was expelled from colonial Brazil.
World Youth Day organizers have set up a massive area in the park with individual, white confessionals so that young people from every nationality can privately receive the sacrament of reconciliation from a priest speaking their own languages.
Pope Francis is hearing the confessions of five young people, speaking Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
Afterwards, the Pope will go to the Archdiocesan Headquarters of Rio de Janeiro where he will meet privately with a group of prisoners and then, from the building’s central balcony, he will recite the Angelus prayer with the faithful gathered in the square below.