ROME (CNS) -- It was easy to walk the streets of Rome and to see groups of young Catholics from across the globe singing, laughing and enjoying the Eternal City during the Jubilee of Youth.
But for a few hours July 30, the Roman Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls became the meeting point for more than 4,000 people from the United States for the USA National Jubilee Pilgrim Gathering.
The gathering was a moment of prayer and fellowship that, for many young people present, was a sign of encouragement and hope in their faith.
"I just think it's so crazy seeing so many people just gather for one common purpose: being with the Lord," 17-year-old Joey Pfeiffer, who hails from Miami, Florida, told Catholic News Service.
"Like other high schoolers, I have doubts in my faith, and just seeing so many people so confident and so exuberant about their faith, and so happy to share it, makes me want to go out and evangelize," Pfeiffer said.
Among the countless young people waiting to enter the basilica under the scorching Roman sun was a group from St. Scholastica Parish in the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois.
For Jonathan Kosinski, 17, his experience in Rome was nothing short of "amazing."
"It's such an amazing experience, because not only do you get such an understanding of different cultures, but you really feel like you're at home with all these people worshipping around you, with the same religion, and it's really like a boost in faith for me."
"Everybody here is excited, and they're happy, and even though we've been walking all day, you can see on people's faces they're just happy to meet other people, and just very open and welcoming to what's going on," fellow pilgrim Angelica Gatling, 18, told CNS.
Grace Gagnon, a 17-year-old pilgrim from the San Francisco Bay area, said that seeing so many young people excited about their faith was "just so beautiful to witness."
"Sometimes it can feel like we're the church of tomorrow, but this is a reminder that we're the church of today, and the youth of the church are so alive and just on fire for the Lord, and it's really evident here," Gagnon told CNS.
During the gathering, pilgrims processed carrying the portraits and relics of some U.S. saints and blesseds, as well as the relics of Blesseds Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, who will both be canonized in September.
Blessed Acutis, who will be the Catholic Church's first millennial saint, was a source of inspiration for many U.S. pilgrims who related to the life of the tech-savvy teen who, before his death from leukemia at the age of 15, had created an online database of Eucharistic miracles around the world.
Pfeiffer told CNS that Blessed Acutis showed "a different way to evangelize" through the use of technology and could inspire "a lot of people online to spread their faith and help people learn."
Gatling and Kosinksi said their group watched a movie on Acutis before heading to Rome. Kosinski told CNS that the soon-to-be-saint's canonization shows that holiness is an attainable goal for Catholic teenagers today.
Gatling agreed, adding that having a saint so close to her age made him relatable. "It's easier when it is someone at our age because you can really see into their lives and how you can put it into modern-day times and live it through yourself and just really relate to them as a person."
"I feel especially connected to Carlo," Gagnon told CNS. "To see that he was just a normal kid, and he still was able to make his faith a priority, and bring it to others, which was the most important thing, to share about the Eucharist with others. And so, that's inspiring to me as a young person, because Carlo was like all of us."
With the upcoming vigil and closing Mass with Pope Leo XIV Aug. 2-3 fast approaching, the U.S. teens told CNS they were looking forward to not only celebrating their faith with the first American pope, but also to join in prayer with hundreds of thousands of their fellow youth from around the world.
"My whole family believes in God. My brother, my friends, everybody believes in God," Pfeiffer said. "But I've never had that definite proof. And I do feel like God is speaking to me being here. I feel like he's revealing himself to me through all the people, through the beautiful cathedrals, through the beautiful flags, through the representation of nations."
"I hope that my faith doesn't stay here, I hope to bring that to other people," Gagnon told CNS. "What I've really been encountering is just the joy of the Lord, and there's been some struggles along the way, for sure, as it is with any pilgrimage, but just taking that joy of the Lord with me everywhere, through the ups and through the downs, because it's unconditional."
