Pope Leo tells hundreds of thousands of young Catholics to build a better world
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Pope Leo (centre) greeting young Catholics from his popemobile in Rome, Italy, on Aug 2.
PHOTO: EPA
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- Pope Leo addressed hundreds of thousands of young Catholics from 146 countries in Rome, urging them to "persevere in faith, with joy and courage".
- Youths waited in high heat to see Pope Leo, who toured the crowd, offering blessings at the event tied to the Catholic Holy Year.
- Many attendees are expected to camp overnight for a Catholic mass led by Leo on August 3, as part of the Vatican's Holy Year events.
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ROME – Hundreds of thousands of young people filled a vast field on the outskirts of Rome on Aug 2 to see Pope Leo, in the largest event yet of the new Catholic pontiff's tenure, as part of a special weekend aimed at energising Catholic youth.
Young people from more than 146 countries, some wearing colourful bandanas to ward off the hot summer sun, were pressed against fences in the Tor Vergata field as Leo toured the crowd in his white popemobile in the late afternoon.
The Pope, smiling broadly, waved, offered blessings and occasionally caught small stuffed animals and national flags thrown by the youth as he passed by.
“Dear young people... my prayer for you is that you may persevere in faith, with joy and courage,” Pope Leo said, in remarks later to the crowd.
“Seek justice in order to build a more humane world,” he said.
“Serve the poor, and so bear witness to the good that we would always like to receive from our neighbours.”
Many of the youth attending the event with Pope Leo spent all day waiting in the field in heat approaching 30 deg C to see the Pope.
Organisers were using water cannons to help cool down people in the crowd.
“For me, it is an incredible emotion because I had never been to an event like this before,” said Ms Maya Remorini, from Italy’s Tuscany region.
She said her group had arrived around 5am that day.
Pope Leo (centre) holding a cross as he arrives in Rome’s eastern Tor Vergata neighbourhood on Aug 2.
PHOTO: AFP
Many of the youth are expected to sleep in the field overnight, waiting for a second chance to see Pope Leo on the morning of Aug 3, when he is due to celebrate a Catholic mass.
The weekend events are tied to the ongoing Catholic Holy Year, which the Vatican says has attracted some 17 million pilgrims to Rome since it started at the end of 2024.
Pope Leo, the first US-born pope, was elected on May 8
