Pope Leo receives a welcome rock star at the Youth Festival in Rome

Papa Leo He received a welcome from the rock star during the weekend when he arrived by helicopter in a suburb of Rome in what has been called Catholic Coachella.

More than 1 million teenagers and 20 and so many sang songs and danced under the water and hot Roman heat during the Youth Jubilee – The largest and largest crowd of Leo’s papacy until now.

But as a new generation from all over the world celebrated, the Pope hastened to call attention to his companions who could not.

“We are closer than ever to young people suffering from the most serious ills, which are caused by other human beings. We are with Gaza’s youth,” he said, interrupted by applause. “We are with the youth of Ukraine. With those of each bloody land 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.”

He American Pope He spoke in English, taking a rare rest of the Italian to use the global language to reach a global audience.

“It is surprising to see how great the world church is and how many people are here just believing in God and actually being in flames to see the Pope, to live in this community,” said Rita Pendi, a young pilgrim from Germany.

Christofer Delano, who attended from New York, was surprised by participation.

“I knew there were many people. I didn’t know what so many were going to be. So I’m very happy to be here,” he said.

The meeting fell during the year 2025 of the Jubilee, a Holy Year marked by special events and appearances of the Pope that occurs only once every century.

This year, the Catholic Church is making a concerted effort to connect with the digital generation. Next month, he will canonize his first millennial Saint, Acute Carlowhose website dedicated to Milagros earned him the nickname of God’s influence. He was 15 years old when he died of leukemia.

Last week, Pope Leo invited influencers to the Vatican, who crowded San Pedro to publish selfies with the pontiff, images in disagreement with a church in Declive in much of the world. In the United States, only three out of 10 Catholics attend Mass Weekly, according to the PEW Research Center.

The Catholic Church has been trying to recover young people, many of them unhappy for decades of scandal that surrounds sexual abuse of minors by priests. According to a PEW report published earlier this year, 43% of people in the United States raised Catholics no longer identify as Catholics.

• Rome
• Papa Leo XIV