ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV urged hundreds of thousands of young people on Saturday to have the courage to make radical choices to do good, as he presided over his first big encounter with the next generation of Catholics during the highlight of the Vatican’s 2025 Holy Year.

Leo encountered a sea of people as he arrived by helicopter at the Tor Vergata field on Rome’s outskirts for a vigil service of the Jubilee of Youth. Hailing from early 150 countries, the pilgrims had set up campsites on the field for the night, as misting trucks and water cannons spritzed them to cool them down from the 30 degrees Celsius temperatures.

Leo displayed his fluency in speaking to the kids in Spanish, Italian and English about the dangers of social media, the value of true friendship and the need to have courage to make radical choices like marriage or religious vows.

“Friendship can really change the world. Friendship is a path to peace,” he said. “How much the world needs missionaries of the Gospel who are witnesses of justice and peace!”

But history’s first American pope also alerted them to some tragic news: Two young people who had made the pilgrimage to Rome had died, one reportedly of cardiac arrest, while a third was hospitalized, Leo told the crowd during the vigil service.

Leo was to return to the field for an early morning Mass on Sunday morning to close out the celebration.

For the past week, these bands of young Catholics from around the world have poured into Rome for their special Jubilee celebration, in a Holy Year in which 32 million people are expected to descend on the Vatican to participate in a centuries-old pilgrimage to the seat of Catholicism.

The young people have been traipsing down cobblestoned streets in color-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.

“It is something spiritual, that you can experience only every 25 years,” said Francisco Michel, a pilgrim from Mexico. “As a young person, having the chance to live this meting with the pope I feel it is a spiritual growth.”

It all has the vibe of a World Youth Day, the Catholic Woodstock festival that St. John Paul II inaugurated and made famous in Rome in 2000 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 last weekend, but Leo and organizers from the stage said the number could reach 1 million.

“It’s a bit messed up, but this is what is nice about the Jubilee,” said Chloe Jobbour, a 19-year-old Lebanese Catholic who was in Rome with a group of more than 200 young members of the Community of the Beatitudes, a France-based charismatic group.

She said, for example, that it had taken two hours to get dinner at a KFC overwhelmed by orders Friday night. The Salesian school that offered her group housing is an hour away by bus. But Jobbour, like many in Rome last week, didn’t mind the discomfort: It’s all part of the experience.

“I don’t expect it to be better than that. I expected it this way,” she said, as members of her group gathered on church steps near the Vatican to sing and pray Saturday morning before heading out to Tor Vergata.

Those Romans who didn’t flee the onslaught have been inconvenienced by the additional strain on the city’s notoriously insufficient public transport system. Residents are sharing social media posts of outbursts by Romans at kids flooding subway platforms and crowding bus stops that have delayed and complicated their commutes to work.

But other Romans have welcomed the enthusiasm the youngsters have brought. Premier Giorgia Meloni offered a video welcome, marveling at the “extraordinary festival of faith, joy and hope” that the young people had created.

Hundreds of thousands of young Catholics from 146 countries, including several from conflict zones such as Lebanon, Iraq, Myanmar, Ukraine, Syria and South Sudan, are converging on Rome from Saturday to Sunday. The weekend includes an evening vigil, an outdoor slumber party and a Sunday morning Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV.

Italian news reports estimated the crowd could reach as high as 1 million, with about 68% of participants coming from Europe. The event at Tor Vergata field, on the eastern edge of Rome, marked Pope Leo’s first major encounter with the next generation of Catholics.

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Pilgrims set up campsites on the grass in front of Tor Vergata in anticipation of the papal Mass, while misting trucks and water cannons were used to help beat the nearly 85-degree heat.

Attendees listen to Pope Leo XIV during a prayer vigil before Sunday Mass as part of the Jubilee of Youth, in Rome’s eastern Tor Vergata neighbourhood on August 2, 2025. Thousands of young Catholics began assembling on August 2, 2025 for an evening prayer vigil led by Pope Leo XIV, the culmination of a week-long pilgrimage and a key event in the Jubilee holy year that is expected to draw up to a million people. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP) (Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images)

For the past week, groups of young people in color-coordinated shirts could be seen throughout Rome, praying, singing and celebrating their faith in the city’s historic piazzas. The festivities included Christian rock concerts, inspirational talks and a unique opportunity for confession at Circus Maximus, where 1,000 priests heard confessions in a dozen languages.

The Jubilee, which takes place once every 25 years, is expected to draw as many as 32 million pilgrims to the Vatican throughout the Holy Year.

“It’s something spiritual that you can experience only every 25 years,” Francisco Michel, a pilgrim from Mexico, told the Associated Press. “As a young person, having the chance to live this meeting with the pope, I feel it is a spiritual growth.”

Pope Leo XIV gestures as he arrives for a vigil for the Jubilee of Youth in Tor Vergata, in Rome, Italy August 2, 2025. REUTERS/Yara Nardi

Pope Leo arrived by helicopter and greeted the crowd in his popemobile before returning to the Vatican for the night. He is scheduled to return to celebrate Mass at dawn Sunday, a gathering emphasizing the ongoing importance of faith, unity and spiritual renewal for Catholics worldwide.

Pope enjoys Chicago pizza delivered to Rome by young Catholics

Pope Leo XIV’s affinity for the Chicago White Sox and Chicago-style pizza inspired a group of young Catholics from Ohio to orchestrate an ambitious delivery. They managed to deliver his favorite pizza from Chicago to Rome.

Despite “very little money and inside connections to the pope or the Vatican,” Jayden Remias tells WGN-TV, the group managed to complete the delivery. The effort was described as “an act of faith.”

Madeline Daley, a member of the group, packed the pizza in dry ice and transported it to St. Peter’s Square. She held up a sign, “the pontiff couldn’t resist.” The plan appeared to work when Daley overheard the pope instructing his security guards, “I want the pizza! Please give me the pizza!”

WGN confirmed with the pope’s brother, John Prevost, that the pontiff ate all of the six-inch Aurelio’s pepperoni pizza.

Gerald William Richards, 79 Oct. 1, 1945 ~ June 13 Gerald William Richards, 79 Oct. 1, 1945 ~ June 13 Mr. Gerald William Richards, 79, of Cookeville, passed away at his residence surrounded by his family Friday, June 13, in Cookeville. Gerald was …

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The young Catholics had gathered for an evening vigil, an outdoor slumber party and morning mass.

Leo arrived by helicopter as the sun set over the Tor Vergata field and immediately boarded his open-topped popemobile for long loops through the flag-waving, cheering pilgrims.

They had already been partying there for hours, setting up campsites for the night as misting trucks and water cannons spritzed them to cool them down from the 30 degree temperature.

Leo displayed his fluency in speaking to the kids in Spanish, Italian and English about the dangers of social media, the value of true friendship and the need to have courage to make radical choices like marriage or religious vows.

“Friendship can really change the world. Friendship is a path to peace,” he said.

“How much the world needs missionaries of the Gospel who are witnesses of justice and peace!”

But history’s first American pope also alerted them to some tragic news.

Two young people who had made the pilgrimage to Rome had died, one reportedly of cardiac arrest, while a third was hospitalised, Leo told the crowd during the vigil service.

For the past week, these bands of young Catholics from around the world have poured into Rome for their special jubilee celebration, in a holy year in which 32 million people are expected to descend on the Vatican to participate in a centuries-old pilgrimage to the seat of Catholicism.

The young people have been traipsing down 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 1000 priests offering the sacrament in a dozen different languages.

It all has the vibe of a World Youth Day, the Catholic Woodstock festival that St John Paul II inaugurated and made famous in Rome in 2000 at the very same Tor Vergata field.

Then, before an estimated two 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 one million.

Those Romans who didn’t flee the onslaught have been inconvenienced by the additional strain on the city’s notoriously insufficient public transport system.

Residents are sharing social media posts of outbursts by Romans at kids flooding subway platforms and crowding bus stops that have delayed and complicated their commutes to work.

But other Romans have welcomed the enthusiasm the youngsters have brought.

Premier Giorgia Meloni offered a video welcome, marvelling at the “extraordinary festival of faith, joy and hope” that the young people had created.

“I think it’s marvellous,” said Rome hairdresser Rina Verdone, who lives near the Tor Vergata field and woke up on Saturday to find a gaggle of police outside her home as part of the massive, 4000-strong operation mounted to keep the peace.

“You think the faith, the religion is in difficulty, but this is proof that it’s not so.”

Verdone had already made plans to take an alternate route home on Saturday afternoon, that would require an extra kilometre walk, because she feared the “invasion” of kids in her neighbourhood would disrupt her usual bus route.

But she said she was more than happy to make the sacrifice.

“You think of invasion as something negative. But this is a positive invasion,” she said.

Hundreds of thousands of young Catholics gathered in Rome on Saturday for an evening vigil, outdoor slumber party and morning Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV.

It is the weekend highlight of the Vatican’s 2025 Holy Year and marks the pontiff’s first big encounter with the next generation of Catholics.

Italian media say the number of pilgrims is as high as one million and that they come from 146 countries, 68% of whom come from Europe. There are also young people from conflict zones including Lebanon, Iraq, Myanmar, Ukraine, Syria and South Sudan.

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For the last week, the young people have poured into Rome for the special Jubilee celebration. Saturday’s vigil with the Pope at the Tor Vergata field on the eastern flank of Rome is the culmination of the festivities.

Pilgrims will be able to spend the night on the law in front of Tor Vergata as they await the Pope’s morning mass on Sunday.

Misting trucks and water cannons spritzed the young people to keep them cool as temperatures neared 30 degrees Celsius ahead of Pope Leo’s arrival.

“It is something spiritual, that you can experience only every 25 years,” said Francisco Michel, a pilgrim from Mexico. “As a young person, having the chance to live this meeting with the pope I feel it is a spiritual growth.”

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“It’s a bit messed up, but this is what is nice about the Jubilee,” said Chloe Jobbour, a 19-year-old Lebanese Catholic who was in Rome with a group of more than 200 young members of the Community of the Beatitudes, a France-based charismatic group.

She said, for example, that it had taken two hours to get dinner at a KFC overwhelmed by orders Friday night. The Salesian school that offered her group housing is an hour away by bus. But Jobbour, like many in Rome this week, didn’t mind the discomfort: It’s all part of the experience.

“I don’t expect it to be better than that. I expected it this way,” she said, as members of her group gathered on church steps near the Vatican to sing and pray Saturday morning before heading out to Tor Vergata.

There was one tragedy before Saturday’s vigil began. The Vatican confirmed that an Egyptian 18-year-old woman had reportedly died of a cardiac arrest during the pilgrimage. The Pope met with her group and extended his condolences to her family on Saturday.

Young people participate in the Youths Jubilee at the Tor Vergata field in Rome, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. – AP Photo

The young people have taken over entire piazzas of Rome for Christian rock concerts and inspiration talks. Some waited for hours to confess their sins to 1,000 priests offering the sacrament in a dozen different languages at the Circus Maximus.

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Around a thousand parishes, schools and families will provide accommodation and breakfast for pilgrims in addition to a large hostel capable of hosting about 25,000 people set up at the Fiera di Roma.

Other facilities include discounted meal vouchers, shower services at major public transport hubs, almost 3,000 chemical toilets on the streets of Rome and the upgrade of underground and regional trains and buses.

Security measures have been put in place. Gates have been set up to prevent dangerous materials and objects into certain areas. Pilgrims have been asked to carry only the bare essentials to facilitate controls.

Volunteers will distribute water bottles and an app by municipal company Acea will provide a map of the 2,660 free water supply points in Rome.