During the weekend highlight of the Vatican’s 2025 Holy Year, hundreds of thousands of young Catholics flocked to a large field on the outskirts of Rome on Saturday. Pope Leo XIV celebrated an evening vigil, an outdoor sleepover, and a morning Mass, marking his first significant interaction with the next generation of Catholics.
In this Holy Year, when 32 million people are anticipated to travel to Rome to take part in a centuries-old pilgrimage to the seat of Catholicism, Leo will undoubtedly enjoy what he sees: bands of young Catholics from all over the world have been invading the area around St. Peter’s Square for their special Jubilee celebration for the past week.
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In their colorful t-shirts, the youths have been pacing down cobblestone streets while praying the Rosary and singing hymns while accompanied by tambourines, guitars, and bongo drums. They have taken over entire piazzas for Christian rock concerts and motivational talks, using their flags as tarps to protect themselves from the sun. They have also stood for hours at the Circus Maximus to confess their sins to 1,000 priests who are offering the sacrament in a dozen different languages.
They started arriving to the Tor Vergata field on Rome’s eastern border on Saturday in preparation for their rendezvous with Leo, which would mark the end of their Jubilee celebration. They picked up their boxed meals, went through security checks, and set up camp after trekking five kilometers (three miles) from the closest subway station. They had sleeping bags and backpacks ready, and umbrellas were planted to provide shade.
Leo, who was elected as the first American pope in May, was arriving by helicopter on Saturday night to lead the vigil and a Q&A session. Then he was heading back to the Vatican for the night, returning on Sunday morning for Mass and a popemobile romp.
Twenty-five years later, a miniature World Youth Day
Everything has the feel of World Youth Day, the Catholic Woodstock event that was launched and made famous in Rome in 2000 in the same Tor Vergata field by St. John Paul II. The young pilgrims were then told by John Paul that they were the sentinels of the morning at the start of the third millennium, in front of an estimated 2 million people.
This weekend, officials had anticipated 500,000 children, but Leo suggested the figure may rise to one million.
Chloe Jobbour, a 19-year-old Lebanese Catholic who was in Rome with more than 200 young members of the Community of the Beatitudes, a charismatic group located in France, said, “It’s a little messed up, but this is what is nice about the Jubilee.”
For instance, she added, the KFC was overloaded with orders on Friday night, and it took two hours to get dinner. Her group lodging was provided by a Salesian school, which is an hour’s bus ride away. Like many others here this week, Jobbour, however, didn’t mind the discomfort since he saw it as a necessary part of the experience.
I don’t think it will be any better. As her party assembled on the steps of a church close to the Vatican to sing and pray before leaving for Tor Vergata, she remarked, “I expected it this way.”
Before the vigil started, there had already been one tragedy: the Vatican reported that Pascale Rafic, an 18-year-old Egyptian, had passed away during the journey. Leo offered his sympathies to her family and visited with the group she was traveling with on Saturday.
Despite preparations by Italian civil protection personnel for temperatures that may have reached 34°C (93°F) or more this week, the weather has been generally cooperative. The temperature has not yet risen above 30°C (85°F) and is not predicted to do so.
Romans were irritated but understanding.
The extra crowds on the city’s infamously inadequate public transportation infrastructure have caused inconveniences for those Romans who did not escape the assault. Locals are posting on social media about Romans losing their temper over children swarming bus stops and subway platforms, which has made their trip to work more difficult.
However, the energy that the young people brought has been embraced by other Romans. In her video welcome, Premier Giorgia Meloni expressed her admiration for the remarkable celebration of faith, joy, and hope that the youth had given to the Eternal City.
Rome hairstylist Rina Verdone, who lives close to the Tor Vergata field, said, “I think it’s marvelous.” She woke up on Saturday to see a group of police officers gathered outside her house as part of the vast, 4,000-person operation that was put in place to maintain order. This proves that religion and faith are not in trouble, despite what you may believe.
Because Verdone was afraid that the influx of children in her area might interfere with her regular bus route, she had previously planned to walk an additional kilometer (half a mile) home on Saturday afternoon. She claimed, however, that she was more than willing to make the sacrifice.
Invasion is viewed negatively by you. However, she asserted that this invasion is constructive.
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