Pope Francis called on people to be humble and show 'tenderness' towards one another in yet another ground-breaking communications move, this time delivering the first ever papal 'TED' talk.
Delegates at TED's annual Conference in Vancouver had been promised a 'world figure' last night, who would deliver his 18-minute message on the conference theme 'The Future You' alongside the tennis superstar Serena Williams, entrepreneur Elon Musk, and chess champion Garry Kasparov. Those attending the conference and watching online were then surprised to see the Pope's face pop up on screen.
Pope Francis's message centred around the idea that 'a single individual is enough for hope to exist, and that individual can be you'.
In his message delivered from the Vatican, the Pope said: 'Let us help each other, all together, to remember that the "other" is not a statistic, or a number. We all need each other.'
He began by saying, 'I very much like this title – "The Future You," because, while looking at tomorrow, it invites us to open a dialogue today, to look at the future through a "you"...The future is made of you's...because life flows through our relations with others.'
The Pope emphasised that 'everything is connected' and of how 'life is about interactions'. He said: 'None of us is an autonomous and independent "I"...We can only build the future by standing together, including everyone'.
He talked about the need for 'educating people to a true solidarity' in order to overcome the 'culture of waste' that favours products over people.
'The other has a face,' said Pope Francis. 'The "you" is...a person to take care of'.
The Pope quoted Mother Teresa and the parable of the Good Samaritan, before describing 'hope' as 'a humble, hidden seed of life that, with time, will develop into a large tree'.
Pope Francis referred to what he called 'the revolution of tenderness,' which means 'being on the same level as the other'. he said. This tenderness is not weakness but strength, he said: 'the path of solidarity...of humility'.
The Pope concluded by presenting the future of humankind as not in the hands of politicians or big companies but, most of all, in the hands of those people 'who recognize the other as a "you" and themselves as part of an "us"'.
Because, he said, 'We all need each other'.
Yesterday, Pope Francis issued a separate video message calling for 'peace, love and mercy' to the people of Egypt, where the Pope is visiting this weekend.
TED is a non-profit organisation dedicated to spreading ideas in the form of short talks which are posted online. It began in 1984 as a conference covering Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED), and today sees a very wide range of talks given by famous and less known people.
