Pope Francis has told teenagers that happiness cannot be downloaded like a mobile phone app. He was speaking to Catholics aged 13-16 who converged on Rome for a Holy Year weekend for teenagers. In his homily during Mass on Sunday in St Peter’s Square, he told a crowd of 100,000 that “happiness has no price” and is “not an app that you can download on your phones, nor will the latest update bring you freedom and grandeur in love”. Francis told teenagers to disbelieve anyone who told them “that life is beautiful only if you have many possessions.” A day earlier, in a video message to the teens’ rally in a Rome stadium, Francis likened being out of contact with God through lack of love to being where there is no mobile phone reception. On Saturday morning, Pope Francis surprised those gathered in St Peter’s Square by hearing Confessions for more than an hour. He administered the Sacrament of Reconciliation to 16 teenage boys and girls who were visiting the Vatican for the Jubilee for Boys and Girls. The Pope made the surprise visit to the square to hear Confessions alongside 150 other priests. The teenagers who made their Confessions to Francis were picked from the crowd at random. Meanwhile, during the Mass on Sunday, Pope Francis prayed that a “merciful” God would touch the hearts of those in Syria who had abducted Catholic and Orthodox faithful, so that the captives would be released soon. His remarks follow the third anniversary of the abductions of Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan Gregorios Yohanna and Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Paul, both of Aleppo, who were kidnapped on April 22, 2013.