Pope Leo XIV Encourages Youth to Share Faith and Embrace Fragility
Pope Leo XIV addressed over 1 million young Catholics who traveled to Rome for the Youth Jubilee, urging them to carry their enthusiasm and faith back to their home countries across more than 150 nations. The closing Mass at Tor Vergata in the southern suburbs of Rome marked a significant moment in the holy year, an event that was originally launched by the late Pope Francis.
This Sunday gathering was the first major encounter between the current pope and the next generation of Catholics. As he arrived at Tor Vergata for the second day of celebrations, the pontiff greeted everyone with warmth, saying, “Good morning everyone and have a good Sunday. I hope you have rested a little. Now we begin the celebration of the Mass, which is the greatest gift that Christ has left us.”
On Saturday, the pope held an evening vigil where he rode in the Popemobile through Tor Vergata, greeting thousands of faithful who had gathered on the lawn ahead of the Sunday Mass. On Sunday, after descending from his helicopter, the pontiff was welcomed by the faithful with cheers, prayers, and flags from around the world.
Embracing Fragility as Part of Human Experience
During the homily, delivered alongside 20 cardinals, 450 bishops, and 7,000 priests, Pope Leo XIV encouraged young people to confront their fragility without viewing it as something to be hidden or ashamed of. He used the metaphor of grass to illustrate this point, stating, “The fragility of which they speak to us is part of the wonder that we are.”
He continued, “Think of the symbol of grass: is not a meadow in blossom beautiful? It is delicate, made up of slender, vulnerable stems, subject to drying out, bending, breaking, and yet at the same time immediately replaced by others that sprout after them, and of which the former generously become nourishment and fertiliser, with their wear and tear on the soil.”
“This is how the field lives, constantly renewing itself, and even during the cold months of winter, when everything seems silent, its energy quivers beneath the ground and prepares to explode, in spring, in a thousand colours.”
“We too, dear friends, are made for this. Not for a life where everything is taken for granted and still, but for an existence that is constantly regenerated in gift, in love,” said the pontiff.
Finding Peace Amidst Restlessness
The pope also encouraged the faithful to cultivate feelings of peace. “The fullness of our existence does not depend on what we accumulate nor, as we heard in the Gospel, on what we possess,” he stated.
In his message, the pontiff referenced his predecessor, the late Pope Francis. “Each of us is called to confront great questions that do not have a simplistic or immediate answer, but invite us to set out, to go beyond ourselves, to a take-off without which there is no flight.”
“Let us not be alarmed, then, if we discover ourselves inwardly thirsty, restless, incomplete, longing for meaning and a future. We are not sick, we are alive,” he said, echoing the words of Pope Francis during the 2023 Youth Day in Lisbon.
A Message of Hope for Young People Affected by War
At the end of the Mass, during the Angelus, the pope expressed gratitude to the young people who had come from all over the world to participate in the Jubilee. “It has been a cascade of grace for the Church and for the whole world, I want to thank you one by one with all my heart.”
He also extended his solidarity to the youth affected by conflict. “We are with the young people of Gaza, with the young people of Ukraine and of every land bloodied by war. You are the sign that another world is possible. A world of friendship in which conflicts are not resolved with weapons but with dialogue.”
Looking Ahead to the Next World Youth Day
The celebration concluded with the official announcement of the next World Youth Day. “The pilgrimage of hope continues and will take us to Asia. Young people from all over the world will gather together with the successor of Peter to celebrate World Youth Day in Seoul, Korea, from 3 to 8 August 2027,” the pope declared.
