🤝 Meeting with young people
Meeting with young people from Europe
📍 Piazza Santa Maria degli Angeli, Assisi
Pope Leo XIV takes off at 8:00 AM from the Vatican heliport and lands at 8:30 AM at the "Migaghelli" sports field in Santa Maria degli Angeli, where he is welcomed by the Archbishop-Bishop of Assisi Mons. Felice Accrocca and civil authorities. After transferring by car to the Basilica, at 8:45 AM he meets in the square with thousands of young people aged 18 to 33 from all over Europe gathered for the "GO! Franciscan Youth Meeting," held from August 3 to 6, 2026, answering three of their questions. At 9:15 AM, in the convent cloister, he greets the Ministers General of the Franciscan Orders (Fra Massimo Fusarelli O.F.M., Fra Carlos Alberto Trovarelli O.F.M. Conv., Fra Roberto Genuin O.F.M. Cap.), the bishops present, and members of the National Committee for the Eighth Centenary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi. In the dialogue with three young people (Karolina from Zagreb, Giovanni from Bologna and Luigi from Sicily), the Pope addresses the themes of evangelical radicalism, vocation and Church unity, confiding: "The Lord has never left me alone." In his address to the young people, the Pope denounces the world's inequalities: "The great ones of the earth and the powerful of the world seek visibility and dominate others," contrasting this with a force "that does not humiliate, but lifts up," translating into "not to dominate, but to serve; not to grasp, but to receive"; he observes how cities are full of "invisible walls" that divide people, walls that can fall when we recognize one another as brothers and sisters. Responding on vocations, he states that "the courage to make a definitive choice is perhaps the most revolutionary act" in today's context.
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