‘Don’t keep it just for yourselves’: more than half a million young people gather for the Jubilee of Young People

Let the Jubilee of Youth be more than an event for making memories and sharing pictures; be sure to encounter Christ and share the Good News, Pope Leo XIV told a group from Peru as more than half a million young people from 146 countries gather in Rome for the Jubilee of Young People, the largest event of the Holy Year so far.

‘I would like everything you experience during these days to be cherished in your hearts forever, but don’t keep it just for yourselves,’ he told the group during an audience at the Vatican on 28 July, the start of the weeklong Jubilee and the day Peru commemorates its independence from Spanish colonial rule.

‘We must learn to share,’ he said. ‘Please, don’t let all of this remain just a memory, just some nice photos, just something from the past.’

He encouraged them, when they return home after the Jubilee celebrations, to share ‘the joy and strength of the Gospel, with the Good News of Jesus Christ’.

Each person by himself or herself is small, he said, ‘but we are not alone; the Lord has wanted us to be part of a large family, the family of the Church,’ so that, like clusters of grapes on the vine, ‘we can grow and bear fruit, aided by the Lord’s grace.’

Love and serve freely, in everyday life, in small things, in hidden ways, because you have experienced the joy of being loved first.

During this landmark event for young people from around the world, he said, ‘all of you will have the beautiful experience of feeling part of the people of God, part of the universal Church, which encompasses and embraces the whole earth, without distinction of race, language or nation.’

‘Love and serve freely, in everyday life, in small things, in hidden ways, because you have experienced the joy of being loved first, and because you have received everything freely from God our Father,’ the Pope said.

The Jubilee of Young People runs from 28 July to 3 August. While half a million people were expected to be in Rome for the start of the weeklong celebration, one million people are expected to attend the outdoor closing prayer vigil and Mass in Rome’s Tor Vergata neighbourhood.

The seven-day celebration includes around 70 events, ranging from spiritual activities to cultural exhibitions. Among the highlights for many participants is the opportunity to venerate the relics of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati and Blessed Carlo Acutis—two young people who exemplified joyful, modern holiness.

The Church of San Marcello al Corso will become a ‘Blessed Carlo Acutis Centre’, hosting talks, prayer, Masses and the veneration of the first-class pericardium relic of the young blessed. Visitors will also be invited to write their prayer intentions on cards, which will be taken to his tomb in Assisi, Italy, according to Catholic Christian Outreach, which organised the initiative.

Jubilee participants will also have the chance to walk through the Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica and receive the sacrament of Reconciliation at Circus Maximus on 1 August, where more than 1,000 priests will hear confessions in multiple languages.

Meanwhile, a special Jubilee is being held for Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers on 28 and 29 July, recognising the growing importance of digital platforms in evangelisation.

The spiritual climax of the Jubilee will be Pope Leo’s evening vigil and Sunday Mass at Tor Vergata, a large outdoor venue southeast of central Rome. Pilgrims will make the final part of their journey on foot, with three marked routes and support stations providing water and assistance.

Performances will include international artists such as Matt Maher, Il Volo, The Sun and dancer Sergio Bernal Alonso.

This moment of celebration and joy also aims to embrace all young people around the world, indicating that it will be a genuine moment of peace and peace-building

The Jubilee takes place against a backdrop of global conflict. In his Angelus address the day before the event began, Pope Leo appealed to world leaders to begin peace talks and reject all threats to peace:

‘Every human person possesses an inherent dignity, bestowed by God himself,’ he said. ‘I urge all parties involved in conflicts to recognise this dignity and to end every action that violates it’.

He made special mention of suffering in Gaza and southern Syria, and violence along the Thailand–Cambodia border, praying to Mary, Queen of Peace, for protection of all innocent victims.

In this context, the Jubilee becomes not just a festival of youth but a prophetic sign of hope.

‘Essentially, this moment of celebration and joy also aims to embrace all young people around the world, indicating that it will be a genuine moment of peace and peace-building in the world,’ said Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelisation, at a Vatican news conference the week before the Jubilee of Youth began.

Also speaking at the news conference, Lamberto Giannini, Rome’s prefect, who coordinates maintaining law and order in the city, said, ‘I am thinking in particular of the Christian young people of Ukraine, the Middle East, Syria, Gaza and Iran.’

The seven-day event during the Jubilee of Hope will be ‘in communion with all of them, because it is for them above all that hope is offered today, and not just any hope, but as we have been taught, the hope that does not disappoint,’ he said.