Pope Francis on Sunday recommended a praying app called "Click to Pray" ahead of a World Youth Day festival in Panama that allows users to share their prayers online. "Internet and the social networks are a resource of our time, a way to stay in touch with others, to share values and projects, and to express the desire to form a community," the pope said during his traditional weekly Angelus prayer.

Pope Francis will make his first trip to Panama on Wednesday for the gathering of more than 150,000 young Catholics from across the globe at the World Youth Day festival. "The web can also help us to pray as a community, to pray together," the pontiff said, addressing pilgrims in Saint Peter's Square from a window in the Apostolic Palace. With the help of an aide holding up a touchscreen tablet, Francis, 82, made a show of using the app.

"Here I will put in... requests for prayers for the Church's mission," he said. Launched in 2016, Click to Pray is available in Spanish, English, Italian, French, Portuguese and German, has mobile apps for Android and iOS and is present on social media.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019