Go! Franciscan Youth Meeting 2026

It began on the 3rd August 2026 and will end on the 6th August in Assisi, the Go! Franciscan Youth Meeting: the international gathering aimed at young people from various parts of the world, which, on the occasion of the Centenary of the Transit of St. Francis of Assisi, offers participants moments of listening, dialogue, formation and fraternity. 

The Go! Franciscan Youth Meeting will end on Thursday, the 6th August, with a solemn Mass presided over by Pope Leo XIV at the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels, and with the missionary mandate, the young participants will be invited by the Pontiff to bring back to their homelands the original freshness of the Gospel. 

There are many questions that young people carry in their hearts and to which they hope to find answers in these days at Go! Franciscan Youth Meeting: amongst them is Chiara, 20 years old, originally from Bergamo. She decided to participate with the desire to listen and was not frightened when she learned that she would sleep in a gym together with many other young people because "every discomfort, every fatigue is easier to bear if shared". 

On the 4th of August, Chiara participated in the workshop "The life of St. Francis" at the Upper Basilica of St. Francis, where a friar guided her to retrace the life of the Saint through Giotto's frescoes. At that moment, she received a question from the friar that she is still finding an answer to: "He asked me to think of a moment in my life that could be portrayed in the Basilica of St. Francis", – says Chiara – "it is a question that I have not yet answered, but I have been continuing to think about it since he asked me. I have not yet identified a moment in my life so significant as to imagine it represented there. Maybe that moment is yet to come." 

Chiara keeps in her heart a particular intention to hand over to the Lord during these days of sharing and prayer: "I would like to be able to transmit my faith to other young people. Because of faith, I have changed for the better. Perhaps it is the Lord who has sown this desire in my heart, and I want to turn it into an invitation to take home with me: to be, in my own small way, a testimony of faith for others." 

Marta is 21 years old and is from Florence. She participated in the 44th Franciscan March and decided to continue her experience with the Go! Franciscan Meeting: these days in Assisi have been precious for letting oneself be questioned by the Lord: "I would like to be able to live less in my head and to let myself be guided by God to be able to take the right path for me. I want to learn to rely on myself." 

Niccolò is 19 years old and is originally from Tollo, a town in the Province of Chieti in Abruzzo: he decided to participate in the Go! Franciscan Meeting because it wants to set out to find the answers to its many questions. First of all, how to be able to find the deepest meaning with respect to the events of his life. A question, he would like to ask the Holy Father, if he had the chance: " I would like to ask him to tell me about the first time he was able to perceive the presence of the Lord in his life and in what surrounded him". 

Daniele, 28 years old from Padua, also has a question he would like to ask Pope Leo XIV: "How do you intend to be a 'ferryman of faith' for the new generations, and what daily choices can help a young person to become a credible example for his peers?" 

Participating in the workshop "Francis, peace and the peripheries", Daniele wondered why the world continues to be marked by wars and international tensions, despite the painful memories of the past. A reflection to which he himself gave an answer: "If we are here today, it is because we believe that peace is still possible. It is up to us to spread it in the places where we live."

For 800 years, St. Francis has continued to speak to the new generations: at the Go! Franciscan Youth Meeting the young people started precisely from the questions that open the heart, discovering that God speaks in their daily lives, inviting them to cast their nets, just as Simon Peter did two thousand years ago. That gesture of unconditional trust changed forever not only his life, but also the history of the Church and of all humanity.