(OSV News) ─ Pope Leo XIV traveled to Assisi Aug. 5 to celebrate the Jubilee Year of St. Francis with 2,500 young people, urging them to become the "new saints" the world needs today.
The pope celebrated Mass at the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels 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' 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' 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.
The pope flew from Vatican City to Assisi by helicopter in the morning. 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. Thankfully, he added, every vocation is also a journey toward redemption and healing.
"Jesus' invitation to follow him reveals our own dignity and teaches us to honor 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 characterized 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."
"Faith unmasks the illusion that our problems can be solved by running away, or abandoning our commitments, or taking a few steps along ever-changing roads without ever truly arriving anywhere," he said. "We may multiply our experiences, our acquaintances and our possessions, yet remain in exactly the same place. The human cost is immense, and the inner emptiness that follows is profound."
Saying "yes" to forever, the pope added, "is a grace which God himself enables us to respond to through our own fidelity, so that we may attain the fullness of life."
Reflecting on his own personal vocation, Pope Leo said, "Looking back on my own life, I can say that the Lord has never left me alone. He has always accompanied me, often by placing people beside me with whom I could share the journey."
"As a priest, as a member of the Augustinian community and as a missionary, I found a light that has guided me to this very day."
After speaking with young people in the piazza, the pope greeted representatives of the Franciscan orders in the basilica's cloister before celebrating Mass. The opening procession began outside, where the pope blessed young people who followed the Mass from the piazza under the summer sun.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, were among the concelebrants.
The Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels, built in the 16th century, encloses the Porziuncola, a small chapel considered the birthplace of the Franciscan order, which St. Francis founded in 1209.
The Porziuncola is one of the old chapels St. Francis worked to rebuild after a mystical vision in which Christ, speaking from the crucifix at San Damiano, told him to repair his Church. It was given to St. Francis to be the motherhouse of the new order in 1211.
Each year during the first week of August, pilgrims to the basilica can receive a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions linked to a mystical experience St. Francis reported there in 1216, when he asked Christ to grant full remission of sins to those who repented, confessed and prayed in the church. Pope Honorius III granted that indulgence at St. Francis' request, and Pope Sixtus IV extended it to all Franciscan churches in 1480.
Pope Leo lauds St. Francis' "revolutionary" choice to follow Jesus
During his homily, Pope Leo recited the well-known prayer "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace," noting that although it is often attributed to St. Francis, it actually dates only to the last century.
He said St. Francis continues to draw people to him eight centuries after his death because of the courage he showed in leaving familiar ways behind to follow a path more consistent with that of Jesus, a choice that seemed "revolutionary" even in a city that had been Christian for centuries.
"This is the energy of Christianity ─ the energy of its beginnings and of its many new beginnings," the pope said.
At the end of the Mass, Pope Leo entered the small Porziuncola chapel for a moment of silent prayer before processing out of the basilica. He then returned to Vatican City by helicopter.
Before departing, the pope told the young people he hoped their days in Assisi would stay with them, and that their return home to their countries across Europe would be marked by reflection and renewed commitment to Christ.
Assisi's Bishop Felice Accrocca reflected, "We experienced an extraordinary day thanks to the Holy Father's visit."
The pope's invitation," the bishop added, "urges us to reach out to others, to become an ever more 'outgoing Church,' especially toward young people, seeking them out in their own places, at their own times, and in their own language, so that together we may discover the power of Jesus and the Gospel and help them understand that Christ is the only true hope."
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Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.
