Connection is the key, says Pope

Pope Francis has urged harmony over division in a surprise papal TED talk, delivered via video to the big-ideas gathering in Vancouver. Francis embraced the theme of this year’s conference - ‘The Future is You’- saying it was relations and connections between people that will shape society to go forward.

“The future is made of encounters, because life flows through our relations with others,” Francis said.

“Everyone’s existence is deeply tied to that of others: life is not time merely passing by, life is about interactions.”  He hoped that the TED conference will remind people that they need each other. In human life, as in science, all things are connected, Francis reasoned.

“The future of humankind isn’t exclusively in the hands of politicians, great leaders or big companies,” Francis said. “Yes, they do hold an enormous responsibility. But the future is, most of all, in the hands of those people who recognise the other as a ‘you’ and themselves as part of an ‘us’.”— AFP