YOUTH In Focus
YOUNG Pilgrims
Pope Leo XIV carries the Jubilee Cross as he walks toward the altar before the start of the vigil with young people gathered in Tor Vergata, Rome, on Aug. 2, 2025, during the Jubilee of Young People. CNS photo/Lola Gomez
Don’t settle for less; God is waiting to transform your life, Pope tells youth BY CAROL GLATZ Catholic News Service
ROME • The fullness of life depends on how much one joyfully welcomes and shares in life while also living with a constant yearning for those things that only come from God, Pope Leo XIV told young people. “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 in his homily during Mass concluding the Jubilee of Youth Aug. 3. The outdoor Mass, held in Rome’s Tor Vergata neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, marked the culmination of a week-long series of events for the Jubilee of Youth. More than 1 million people were estimated to be gathered across the 130 acres that had been prepared for the morning Mass, the prayer vigil the evening before, and for the hundreds of thousands of people sleeping overnight.
After touching down by helicopter less than 12 hours after leaving the evening vigil, the Pope rode in the popemobile throughout the open areas – dotted with tents and tarps, and filled with young people, cheering, waving their nation’s flag, and sometimes launching at him shirts and gifts. “Good morning!” he said in six languages from the massive stage set up for the Mass. “I hope you all rested a little bit,” he
August 2025
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THE MONITOR MAGAZINE 9