Half-million young Catholics invade Rome, awaiting Pope Leo XIV at festival
Rome, Aug 2: Hundreds of thousands of young Catholics poured into a vast field on Rome’s outskirts Saturday for the weekend highlight of the Vatican’s 2025 Holy Year: an evening vigil, outdoor slumber party and morning Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV that marks his first big encounter with the next generation of Catholics.
Leo will surely like what he sees: For the past week, bands of young Catholics from around the world have invaded the area around St Peter’s Square for their special Jubilee celebration, in this Holy Year in which 32 million people are expected to descend on Rome to participate in a centuries-old pilgrimage to the seat of Catholicism.
The young people have been traipsing through cobblestoned streets in colour-coordinated t-shirts, praying the Rosary and singing hymns with guitars, bongo drums and tambourines shimmying alongside.
Using their flags as tarps to shield them from the sun, they have taken over entire piazzas for Christian rock concerts and inspirational talks, and stood for hours at the Circus Maximus to confess their sins to 1,000 priests offering the sacrament in a dozen different languages.
On Saturday, they began arriving at the Tor Vergata field on the eastern flank of Rome for the culmination of their Jubilee celebration – the encounter with Leo.
After walking five kilometres from the nearest subway station, they passed through security checks, picked up their boxed meals and set up camp, backpacks and sleeping bags at the ready and umbrellas planted to give them shade.
Leo, who was elected in May as the first American pope, was flying in by helicopter Saturday evening to preside over the vigil and a question-and-answer session.
He was then returning to the Vatican for the night and coming back for a popemobile romp and Mass on Sunday morning.
A mini World Youth Day, 25 years later
It all has the vibe of a World Youth Day, the Catholic Woodstock festival that St John Paul II inaugurated and made famous in 2000 in Rome at the very same Tor Vergata field.
Then, before an estimated 2 million people, John Paul told the young pilgrims they were the “sentinels of the morning” at the dawn of the third millennium.
Officials had initially expected 500,000 youngsters this weekend, but Leo hinted the number might reach 1 million. (AP)