{"id":116865,"date":"2025-08-04T14:19:58","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T12:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/?p=116865"},"modified":"2025-08-04T14:19:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T12:19:58","slug":"jubilee-of-youth-pope-answers-questions-from-pilgrims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/jubilee-of-youth-pope-answers-questions-from-pilgrims\/","title":{"rendered":"Jubilee of Youth: Pope answers questions from pilgrims"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"image_pdf\"PDF<\/span><\/a>\"image_print\"PRINT<\/span><\/a><\/div>

Around a million young pilgrims gathered in Tor Vergata, on the outskirts of Rome, for the Jubilee of Youth on Saturday evening.<\/span><\/p>\n

As night fell, Pope Leo led the pilgrims in a prayer vigil, feauturing singing, Scripture readings, and Eucharistic Adoration.<\/span><\/p>\n

The centrepiece of the event was a question-and-answer session in which\u00a0<\/span>the Pope responded<\/b><\/a>\u00a0to three questions posed by young pilgrims in Spanish, Italian, and English.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

Friendship, life choices, and encountering Jesus<\/b><\/h2><\/div>

The first question was asked by Dulce Maria, 23, from Mexico. Given the \u201cfleeting and often illusory\u201d nature of online connections, she asked, how can we \u201cwe find true friendship and genuine love that will lead us to true hope\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

In his reply, the Pope stressed that although social media offers an \u201cextraordinary opportunity\u201d for dialogue, it can \u201cbe used to lull us, to make us addicted to consumerism\u201d. He stressed that friendships can only be truly lasting if they are founded in God, and, quoting St Augustine, emphasised that \u201cIt is the one who loves God in his friend who truly loves his friend.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The second question came from Gaia, 19, from Italy, She asked about the \u201cclimate of uncertainty\u201d which \u201cparalyses\u201d many young people, and prevents them from making important life choices.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his reply, Pope Leo emphasised that these choices are not \u201ca matter of choosing something, but of choosing someone.\u201d When we make a choice, the Pope said, we decide \u201cwho we want to become\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The final question was posed in English, by Will, 20 years old and from the US. How can we \u201ctruly encounter\u201d Jesus, he asked, and be sure of his presence \u201ceven in the midst of trials and uncertainties?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In his response, Pope Leo urged the young pilgrims to \u201creflect on your way of living\u201d, \u201cseek justice\u201d, \u201cserve the poor\u201d, and \u201cadore Christ in the Blessed Sacrament\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

Prayers for Maria and Pascale<\/b><\/h2><\/div>

In his answers to the pilgrims\u2019 questions, Pope Leo also mentioned the two young women \u2013 Maria, 20, from Spain, and Pascale, 18, from Egypt \u2013 who have died while taking part in Jubilee of Youth events in recent days.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet us pray together for them, pilgrims of hope,\u201d said the Pope. \u201cLet us pray for their families, their friends and their communities. May the Risen Jesus welcome them into the peace and joy of his Kingdom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The vigil then came to an end with roughly an hour of Eucharistic adoration, accompanied by chanting and prayers in French, English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Polish and Latin.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div>

* Article published in Vatican News. By Joseph Tulloch. Photos: Vatican Media.<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":116860,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3386,3367],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-see","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116866,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116865\/revisions\/116866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}