Rome enveloped the equivalent of the Catholic forest. That heading act: The new American Pope.
Hundreds of thousands of young people have descended into eternal cities throughout the week for festivals of faith, music and religious services, singing groups of teens and young adults from around the world, waving flags on the ancient streets of Rome, camping in the enormous warehouses on the outskirts of the city.
After a helicopter descending on Saturday evening, Pope Leo XIV greeted the excited sea of pilgrims with waves and blessings.
After a prayer vigil held in a vast area in Rome’s Torvergata district, the crowd slept under the stars and woke up early Sunday morning as Leo returned to celebrate the Mass.
For Leo, who mails in less than 100 days, the youth mega meeting marks his pope’s first test of whether he can connect with the younger generations of the church. The Vatican estimates that more than one million young people have been found to be Sunday’s Mass, which has become the biggest event in his Holy See.
Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, hit many young people, travelled back and forth with a large crowd, and put aside pre-prepared speeches that he asked difficult questions from them about losing faith, abortion and sexual abuse.
Leo has a different style than Francis. The Chicago-born Pope frequently maintains his set texts and leaps against the Vatican, seeking help in ways his more destructive predecessors often avoided.
Nevertheless, the Pope was able to demonstrate his ability to connect with young people through his quiet charisma and credibility, and had a gentle leadership, communicating less through dramatic actions and salty speeches.
At a youth event in Rome, part of the Catholic Church’s Jubilee celebration, Leo embraces the enthusiasm of the youth, but secures a moment of quiet reflection. On Saturday evening, the crowd went silent, and Leo kneeled down to the main altar, leading them into a quiet era of prayer.
It’s still early for Leo’s Pope. He has shown determination to continue the reforms that Francis began, but he is still growing into the role. Leo is known for his orderly style, and people close to him say he is likely to listen and analyze months before he makes any major HR appointments or other important decisions.
As an Augustine’s monk, his spirituality is contemplative, and is on display on Saturday, in his relatively youthful Pope era at the age of 69, when he carried a large wooden cross up the stairs to the main altar – he doesn’t have to hurry. The key question is how he manages Romaculia, the central government of the Vatican church. Francis often detoured and sometimes criticized him strongly. Leo shows that he wants to work with the agency, but he needs to avoid being controlled by it.
Some Vatican observers say he still needs to find his voice and take advantage of his linguistic benefits better.
“You can understand that he wants to speak Italian, just as the Pope is a Bishop of Rome. “But if he wants to reach his target audience, he must speak English.”
During the youth celebration, Leo used his language better and switched between Spanish, English and Italian. On Tuesday evening, he electrified the crowd that went wild when Leo made a surprise appearance after a welcome mass.
“You are the light of the world!” he told them, cheering loudly in English.
The long-term trends indicate a sharp decline in young people’s involvement and identification in mainstream religions in Western countries.
However, the Catholic Church could fall into that trend, and in recent research that has sparked interest among ZEN Z, during the youth jamboree, Leo greeted the iPhones sea at St. Peter’s Cathedral and met social media influencers called “digital missionaries” who connect with new audiences.
One of them, former craft beer brewer Jose de Urquidi, told CNN he was “like a missionary” of the past, learning new languages and habits.
“It’s a really cool experience to connect with people of your age from different places around the world who are going through the same thing and want to experience the same thing,” 17-year-old Milena Solano, who traveled from the US, told CNN.
“Some people find it strange to be religious, and I think we’ll meet people who don’t think it’s that exhilarating.
Francis was skimming through the newspaper, and Leo was the first Pope to write his own emails wearing an Apple Watch. He is more conscious than his online news predecessor or the world of social media.
“You know, today there is an algorithm that tells us what we see, what we need to think about, who our friends should be. And our relationships become confused and sometimes unsettling,” he told the youngster on Saturday.
At a point of uncertainty – political and other – many young people want Leo to become the voice of a marginalized person.
“I really love him to pray for my family and all the immigrants and refugees in our country, just for peace, evacuation and security for them,” said 17-year-old Victoria Aguirre, from her hometown in Chicago.
And as 18-year-old Damien Hernandez from New Mexico was waiting for the Pope to arrive, he said it was important for Leo to emphasize that he would welcome immigrants.
Some American pilgrims in Rome had a special affinity for the Pope who spoke their language and culture. After Leo spoke to the crowd in English before Mass on Sunday morning, some of the crowd chanted “Viva Ilpapa.” And after he was handed a slice of Aurelio’s Chicago Deep Dish Pizza in St. Peter’s Square, the bishop seemed pleased.
Before his election, the Pope frequently visited one of his restaurants in Homewood, Illinois.
As Pope, Leo can no longer go out for a quiet slice.
He went to one of the world’s most famous people in the world in a few hours due to the relative obscurity of the Rome-based cardinal.
While most political leaders like to have a big impact in the first 100 days, Leo seems happy to listen, analyze and wait.
This strategy can, in the long run, give him more authority within the Church, promote reform, and loom as a moral voice at the world stage.
“We’re with the young people in Gaza and with the young people in Ukrainian,” Leo said at the end of Sunday Mass.
As the young people were preparing to go home, he said to them: “My young brothers and sisters, you are a sign that another world is possible.”
Alessandro Gentile, Witek Rzepczak, and Clara Schönthaler contributed the report.
