Pope Leo at Our Lady of the Angels-Santa Maria degli Angeli

Eight centuries after the 30th May, 1221, when 5000 friars met at the church of Our Lady of the Angels to meet and pray together, on the 6th August, 2026, 2500 young people from all over Europe met in the same place to pray, welcome and dialogue with Pope Leo XIV, on his second visit to the Porziuncola of his pontificate. 

The meeting, which came at the end of the "GO! Franciscan Youth Meeting", promoted by the Ministers General of the Franciscan Family and organised by the Friars Minor of Assisi (OFM, OFMCap and OFMConv), in collaboration with the Diocese of Assisi - Nocera Umbra - Gualdo Tadino and Foligno and the City of Assisi, did not disappoint expectations. 

In the parvis of the Basilica, packed with young people and others, Pope Leo was greeted by Fr. Marco Vianelli OFM, Minister Provincial of the Seraphic Province of the Friars Minor of Umbria and Sardinia, in the presence of the Ministers General of the First Order of the Franciscan Family. 

This was followed by the long-awaited meeting with young people. Three of them – Karolina from Croatia, Giovanni, and Luigi from Italy – asked the Pontiff many questions, concerning the lives of young people like them, their realities, the world that changes too quickly, leaving doubts and uncertainties. 

To Karolina from Zagreb, who asked how she could bring hope to her peers, Leone replied by taking the example of Francis, his evangelical radicalism, following Christ and the joy of being together in His name: "Bear witness to this style everywhere, especially in a time when technology makes us unaccustomed to being together, amongst people of flesh and blood”, said the Pontiff. 

Giovanni di Bologna, on the other hand, questioned him on how to be able to make definitive decisions in a world where the culture of the provisional reigns. The Holy Father recalled how a definitive choice is not a cage, but a "revolutionary act", which, if done with faith, trust, and reliability in Christ, opens up new paths to be discovered, with God's help. He also shared his vocational experience: "The Lord has never left me alone: he has always accompanied me, also giving me people to walk with. Thus, in the vocation to be a priest, a member of the Augustinian community, a missionary, I found a light that guided me until today, until I had to say 'yes' to a very special call: that of being Pope". 

Luigi from the YouFra in Paternò, a small town in Sicily, focused on a phrase that many young contemporaries repeat, namely that "they believe, but not in the Church". In this case, Leone took up the experience of Francis, who rediscovered Christ by contemplating the Crucifix, who invited him to "repair his house": "Each of us has a role in this construction site that is always open. We have different responsibilities and vocations, but we walk together, inspiring, helping and correcting each other. It is important to do our part. Then we will speak of the Church with the affection with which we speak of a Mother, because we will recognise that we belong to her." 

After greeting dozens of friars inside the cloister of the Basilica, Pope Leo XIV presided at Mass on the day of the Feast of the Transfiguration. In his homily, he emphasised how Our Lady of the Angels was first for St Francis, and then for St Clare, the place of their transfiguration, in which they welcomed the Gospel sine glossa, "without discounts, and the life of Jesus began anew in them."  

The Pontiff recalled how the light of the transfiguration is the same light of Easter morning, of the new day, "towards which we are oriented, while around us, and sometimes in us, it is still dark. We see the dawn of this in canonised saints, such as St. Francis and St. Clare, and in a myriad of brothers and sisters who respond to evil with good. We are not alone!

In these days you have experienced this", said Leone, recalling the events that young people have experienced with the "Go! Franciscan Youth Meeting". And taking up the title of the event, the Holy Father made an appeal to all young people: "Today Europe and the whole world are looking for new saints in you: dare to believe in the word of the Gospel, become human with the freedom of Jesus Christ, embrace sister poverty! 

The title of your meeting – Go! – it is a mission, a sending out on roads of which we do not have maps, because they open by listening to the heart, obeying the Spirit, following the Risen One where he wanted to precede us. Go! Go! Better yet: let's go! Let's go! On the margins, where injustice and the arrogance of a few deny the dignity and dreams of many, of too many sons and daughters of God", to build a "civilisation of love whose sprouts you have found in so many examples of gratuitousness, and which transfigures – in the image of Christ – countless peacemakers even today committed to serving life in the most tragic scenarios of death". 

Before the final blessing, a young man, Francesco Varone, on behalf of all the participants of the meeting, thanked the Pontiff for his presence, asking him to pray for all the young people of the world. 

Read the dialogue between the Pope and young people 
Read the greeting of Br. Marco Vianelli, OFM 
Read the homily of Pope Leo XIV 
Read the GO Missionary Charter! Franciscan youth meeting 

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