Pope Leo XIV travelled to Assisi to celebrate the Jubilee Year of St Francis with 2500 young people, urging them to become the “new saints” the world needs today. Source: OSV News.
The Pope celebrated Mass at the Basilica of St Mary of the Angels yesterday on the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord for participants in the “Go! Franciscan Youth Meeting,” a four-day gathering of young people ages 18 to 33 from across Europe. The basilica was built on the site where St Francis founded the Franciscan order.
“Dear young people, today Europe and the whole world are looking to you to be new saints. Dare to believe in the word of the Gospel; become fully human with the freedom of Jesus Christ,” Pope Leo said in his homily in the basilica that encompasses the small chapel where St Francis founded the Franciscan order.
“Unite the best energies of your magnificent humanity: your studies, skills, work, friendships, love and prayer, so that you can bring Saint Francis’s vision to life in many different ways,” he added.
The Pope’s visit is part of the Church’s celebration of the 800th anniversary of St Francis’s death and coincides with the annual August celebration in which pilgrims flock to the Basilica of St Mary of the Angels to receive a plenary indulgence linked to a mystical experience of St Francis.
Before Mass, he met young people gathered in the piazza in front of the basilica and answered some of their questions, offering advice about vocations and discernment.
He told them that “the deepest vocation, written in every human heart, is a call to communion,” a truth he said sin can obscure.
“Jesus’s invitation to follow him reveals our own dignity and teaches us to honour the dignity of others by placing our trust in them and proving ourselves worthy of their trust,” Pope Leo said.
“This dynamic is so liberating that it deserves the wholehearted commitment of our lives.”
Pope Leo also reflected on the instability of modern life, saying “the stability that once characterised traditional societies is disappearing” and that a confused sense of freedom can leave people feeling nothing is ever truly settled.
In that environment, the Pope said, “the courage to make a definitive choice may well be the most revolutionary act of all.”
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In Assisi, Pope Leo urges young people to become ‘new saints’ (By Courtney Mares, OSV News)
