Pope Francis asked the 1.5 million young people who attended World Youth Day to take “what God has sown into your hearts” back to their home countries and build a joyful church that is open to all.

Assuring Rome priests of his gratitude and prayers, Pope Francis asked them to use part of their summer rest to reflect on ways to strengthen the unity of the church and promote greater collaboration with laypeople.

After a five-day trip to Portugal, which recently came to terms with its own clerical sex abuse crisis, Pope Francis said the Catholic Church must abandon its practice of covering up abuse and instead be “very open” about how it is confronting the crime.

Before 200,000 pilgrims at Fátima, many of them with tears in their eyes, Pope Francis called for a new Marian devotional title — “Our Lady in a Hurry” — to describe how Mary hastens to care for all her children.

When feelings of suffering, anxiety and loneliness bring young people to tears, Jesus cries with them and walks alongside them on the way of the cross, Pope Francis said.

While Pope Francis was visiting Portugal for World Youth Day, talk of future papal trips — including to Kosovo and Argentina — was making headlines as were some of his thoughts about the need for the Catholic Church to be open to all.

Over a three-course meal with young people, Pope Francis cracked jokes and talked soccer but also addressed the tough topics that young Catholics are grappling with today, such as abortion and euthanasia.

Saying his glasses “aren’t working,” Pope Francis put aside his prepared text and told representatives of Portuguese charities to make their love “concrete” and leave a mark on the world with their lives.

Young people were going to confession on street corners and park benches throughout Lisbon during World Youth Day, but in the 150 plywood confessionals set up in Vasco da Gama Garden three of them found themselves face to face with Pope Francis.

Typically observed every 25 years, a Holy Year or jubilee can draw millions of pilgrims to Rome — a 2,775-year-old city of 2.9 million people that already infamously copes with an average of 7 to 10 million tourists a year.