Brazil is the world's most populous Catholic nation but many ignore Church
teachings on sex and birth control, and the Government has upset the Vatican by
handing out free condoms.
At the Pacaembu stadium, young men and women sang and danced with typical
Brazilian joyfulness to Christian rock music before the 80-year-old Pope took
to the stage.
A priest led thousands in a chant of "Life yes, abortion no."
Even so, many teenage couples kissed and groped each other as they waited on
the sports field for the Pope to arrive.
In a long speech, he urged them to live their lives by a strict moral code and
not to waste their youth.
He decried the violence that scars Brazilian society and the high death rate
among its youths, the "deplorable proliferation of drugs" and discrimination
"I send you out, therefore, on the great mission of evangelising young men and
women who have gone astray in this world like sheep without a shepherd," he
said.
The Pontiff earlier met President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose Government
has been criticised by Church leaders for distributing millions of condoms in
an anti-AIDS program and for questioning the Vatican's tough stance on
abortion.
The two men avoided the condom and abortion issues in their meeting, officials
said.
Polls show many Brazilians feel the Church is out of touch but others support
the Pope's line.
To many Latin Americans, Pope Benedict is an enigma, with a reputation as a
conservative theologian who has spent most of his career cloistered in the
Vatican.
In contrast, his charismatic predecessor, Pope John Paul, was hugely popular
across the region, home to nearly half the world's 1.1 billion Catholics.
