Pope Francis Meets with Social Media Stars at the Vatican

By Derek Welch --
01 Jun 2016 --

Pope thanks the young YouTube stars for giving him some of their youth as a gift.

The charisma of Pope Francis is such that even Hollywood A-listers do not mind waiting for him, even for a long time. Actor George Clooney, his wife Amal Clooney (a human rights lawyer), Richard Gere, and Salma Hayek, who went to Vatican last month to take part in the Scholas Occurrentes World Congress, had to wait for the Pontiff, apparently for about 90 minutes, as he was in a meeting with about a dozen YouTube stars. The conference started about one and a half hour late, but nobody seemed to mind.

Pope Francis Meets with Social Media Stars[/tweetthis]

Pope Francis's meeting with the young YouTube stars was all about improving the lives of younger people. The YouTube personalities included Hayla Ghazal, a 20-year old social media star from Dubai, Matthew Patrick, an American actor, writer, and Internet personality who is famous for his YouTube web series Game Theory, and Dulce Candy, a Mexican-American whose beauty tutorials has over two million subscribers worldwide. Hayla Ghazal is also a United Nations young ambassador. She is also an avid promoter of gender equality. Dulce Candy arrived in America at the age of six as an undocumented migrant.

During the meeting, Pope Francis discussed the plight of immigrants and the battle for peace with the young stars. He told them that the migration problem is a serious issue, not only in America but around the world. It is necessary to have policies to integrate refugees while letting them hold on to their own cultures.

Pope told the group that unity is not uniformity, rather, it is relations between differences. Everyone should see themselves as brother and sisters. When walls are erected, it would only divide one religion from another, and this would lead to conflicts. Remove the wall, and sort out the differences through dialogue. Different religious identities are not the cause for divisions, but fundamentalists. In every religion, there exists a group of fundamentalists who believe that what they believe and speak is the truth.

One of my favorite YouTubers had an amazing experience in Rome!
TAKING SELFIES WITH THE POPE!! https://t.co/sloZogFsZe via @YouTube
— Miss Paula (@Paula_MusicnMe) June 1, 2016

Pope Francis reminded the social media stars that their high profile comes with responsibilities. He asked them to encourage their followers and viewers to help each other by offering a hand, a hug or by simply remaining silent. Pope Francis told them about the power of conveying messages through actions or gestures and encouraged them to recover the language of gestures through their virtual system.

The group asked the Pontiff whether he would ever retire, like his predecessor. Pope Francis told them that he never thought of quitting being pope or leaving because of the many responsibilities that he has.

Addressing Louise Pentland, a British fashion and beauty vlogger who has been among the 12 YouTube celebrities, Pope Francis said that following the line of beauty is a great thing. Showing and preaching beauty helps neutralize aggression.

Pope Francis concluded the 50-minute meeting by thanking the young group for giving him some of their youth as a gift.