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Miami Herald
03-08-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Over 1 million join Pope Leo XIV for World Youth Jubilee Mass in Rome
ROME - Young people from 146 countries celebrated with Pope Leo XIV at the concluding Mass of the World Youth Jubilee at Rome's University of Tor Vergata on Sunday. The Vatican put the number of youths attending the event at more than a million, based on official estimates. Leo arrived by popemobile to cheers and applause. He urged the celebrants "to adventure with the Lord toward eternity" saying that the Lord was "gently knocked" at the window of their souls. "Aspire to great things, to holiness, wherever you are. Do not settle for less. You will then see the light of the Gospel growing every day, in you and around you," he said. The youth gathering is seen as the central event in the Jubilee Year, with the high point on Sunday on the Tor Vergata sports fields in the southeast of the Italian capital. The event was held there in 2000 as well, when John Paul II was pope. The event was the largest to date during the papacy of the first pope from the United States. At 69, Leo is considerably younger than many of his predecessors. He is seen as approachable and keen on sport, granting one of his first audiences to tennis player Jannik Sinner. During the evening vigil on Saturday, Leo answered three questions from young people, showing fluency in Spanish, Italian and English to talk about friendship in the age of social media. He spoke of the fear of taking decisions and the quest to make sense of the world. Many of the young people spent the night outdoors after the event that included music and prayers. _____ Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
DW
03-08-2025
- Politics
- DW
Pope's 'Jubilee of Youth' ends with mass for 1 million – DW – 08/03/2025
Faithful from across the world gathered in Rome for the week-long festival for young people. One of the highlights was a concert dubbed the Catholic "Woodstock." Young people from nearly 150 countries celebrated Mass on Sunday with Pope Leo XIV at the end of the Catholic Church's Jubilee of Youth in Italy. The Vatican said more than a million youth took part in the huge event in a vast open space at Rome's University of Tor Vergata. Leo, who arrived by helicopter and popemobile to cheers and applause, used his closing blessing to remember the young people of Gaza and Ukraine and other warring countries who could not join their celebration. "We are closer than ever to young people who suffer the most serious evils, which are caused by other human beings," Leo said. "We are with the young people of Gaza. We are with the young people of Ukraine, with those of every land bloodied by war." "My young brothers and sisters, you are the sign that a different world is possible. A world of fraternity and friendship, where conflicts are not resolved with weapons, but with dialogue." Later, he told them to: "Aspire to great things, to holiness, wherever you are. Do not settle for less." The week-long Jubilee of Youth is a highlight of the Catholic Church's Jubilee or Holy Year of forgiveness and pilgrimage, which runs until January. The event drew half a million young pilgrims over the past week, most of them camping out in tents, sleeping bags, or on mats in the sprawling fields southeast of Rome. Sunday's colourful mass was accompanied by music from a choir and about 450 bishops and 700 priests, all in green robes. A towering cross dominated the massive golden arch covering the stage where the pope led the proceedings. On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people watched a concert by religious bands, dubbed the Catholic "Woodstock," attended by the pope. Another highlight was turning the Circus Maximus — where chariot races were held in ancient Rome — into an open-air confessional. The youth pilgrimage came about three months after the start of Leo's papacy and 25 years after John Paul II organised the last such youth gathering in Rome. Italian pilgrim Tommaso Benedetti said Leo had passed his "first test" in the eyes of young people during the jubilee. "We feel quite satisfied. There were many references to peace, a theme that is very close to our hearts as young people," Benedetti told AFP. The church's wider Jubilee or Holy Year is expected to bring 32 million people to the Vatican for the centuries-old pilgrimage to the seat of Catholicism. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
