Pope Leo meets hundreds of thousands of young Catholic youths

3/8/2025 5:52

Hundreds of thousands of young

people filled a vast field on the outskirts of Rome on Saturday

to see Pope Leo, in the largest event yet of the new Catholic

pontiff's tenure, as part of a special weekend aimed at

energizing 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 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," 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 Leo spent all day

waiting in the field in heat approaching 30 degrees Celsius

(86°F) to see the pope.



Organizers 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 Maya Remorini, from

Italy's Tuscany region. She said her group had arrived around 5

a.m. that morning.



Many of the youth are expected to sleep in the field

overnight, waiting for a second chance to see Leo on Sunday

morning, when the pope 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.



Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, was elected on May 8 by the

world's cardinals to replace the late Pope Francis.