BARCELONA, Spain (OSV News) -- Pope Leo XIV listened to deeply personal testimonies from young people grappling with depression, family trauma and questions of faith on his first day in Barcelona at Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium, telling a crowd of tens of thousands that God does not abandon those who suffer, even when his presence feels most distant.
The event, held at the main venue for the 1992 Summer Olympics on the hill of Montjuïc overlooking Barcelona's harbor. The stadium has a capacity of more than 55,000.
Cheers erupted as the pope passed through the stadium in the popemobile and blessed babies before taking questions from several young people whose stories reflected some of the most difficult dimensions of human experience.
A suicide attempt and a second chance
In one of the evening's most poignant moments, a young woman named Carmina described her yearslong struggle with depression and a suicide attempt, asking the pope where God could be found "when the darkness is absolute and we cannot take it anymore."
Pope Leo gave her a hug after his response in which he called her presence at the event "a remarkable miracle."
"I am moved," he said, "that you are here among us and that you have found the strength to embrace this second chance that the Lord has given you."
"Through contact with Jesus, even those who feel lost regain confidence in life; healed of their illness, they can rise to live again."
The pope drew on the Gospel accounts of Gethsemane and the Crucifixion to describe how Christ himself entered into the deepest human suffering.
"In those dark hours, as he was dying on the cross, Jesus shared our pain and revealed to us the face of a compassionate God who bears our sorrows, who suffers with us, weeps our tears, and remains at our side with his presence full of love and mercy," the pope said.
He was careful, however, to avoid what he called the spiritualization of pain, saying, "God does not want suffering. He carries it with us and invites us to trust in him with perseverance."
He urged those suffering not to face their pain in isolation. "In times of pain, at least as much as possible, we must open ourselves to someone who can help us utter a simple prayer, who can accompany us with discretion without rushing to explain that pain, who can take us by the hand and lead us out of that cry."
The pope also made a direct appeal for expanded mental health care, calling the growing prevalence of psychological illness "a sign that there is something deeply wrong with a certain notion of progress that subjects people to pressures, expectations and tensions that compromise healthy balances.
"We need a health care system that prioritizes this invisible and widespread malaise, which also affects young people," he said.
On forgiveness and domestic violence
A second, 20-year-old woman described a childhood marked by domestic violence by her father, her mother's subsequent drug use and her own placement in a juvenile detention center at age 10. She told the pope that her father tried to kill her mother, and she still struggles to forgive her father and asked how genuine reconciliation was possible.
Pope Leo framed forgiveness as a lifelong process rather than a single act. "We must continually ask the Lord -- perhaps for our entire lives -- to expand the space of love within us, precisely where we have been wounded," he said.
"We must learn to view forgiveness -- that powerful remedy for evil that heals our inner wounds -- as part of a process and a journey," he added.
The pope was clear that forgiveness does not require restored closeness, especially in cases involving violence. "We can maintain a good disposition of heart toward the person, reject all forms of hatred or revenge, strive to repair the relationship as much as possible, and perhaps pray for him or her."
The pope also addressed domestic violence and femicide directly, calling them a "toxic climate in family relationships" that demands a societal response.
Baptism and the Search for God
A recently baptized young man also shared his story, prompting the pope to comment that "Many young people and adults are rediscovering the Christian faith, sometimes after having drifted away from God over a period of time."
"We are made for the infinite, and that is why every finite horizon, every step, every achievement -- while satisfying us -- also propels us forward and invites us to keep searching," Pope Leo said. "Above all, to search by 'going inward,' that is, by delving deeper."
"Cultivate moments of silence, perhaps pausing for a few minutes each day to read the Gospel and speak with God," Pope Leo advised the new convert. "Try to walk this inner path together with others, allowing yourselves to be accompanied on the journey and engaging with priests, religious and people who, like us, have set out on this path."
Castellers
The evening opened with a performance of the castell, the centuries-old Catalan tradition of building human towers, by a group from Vilafranca del Penedès.
Cardinal Juan José Omella Omella, archbishop of Barcelona, introduced the tradition, recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity, as a symbol of what people can accomplish "when we work together toward a common goal." He noted the towers may have inspired Antoni Gaudí's famous spires at the Sagrada Família.
'We must not give up'
In his closing speech, the pope reflected that "we are called to engage with the shadows of our own human condition: We lack the full truth; we do not fully fathom the mystery of ourselves or the true identity of others; we do not always succeed in understanding the hidden truth of the reality that surrounds us and the events unfolding before our eyes. We seek a light to illuminate the path."
"Even in the heart of night, we must not give up searching, questioning and dialoguing with God and with each other," he added.
Accompanying the disabled and reaching out to others
Among those present in the crowd were members of the Community of the Lamb, a mendicant religious community, who accompanied people with physical and intellectual disabilities to the event with the pope.
Little Sister Oliviana, originally from Arizona, said she believed the pope's message resonated well beyond practicing Catholics.
"Everybody's here. Everybody came. And it's a really a big call for those that are not just in the Church, but those that are far away from the Church, that they can also be touched and that the Church is for everybody," she told OSV News.
"I think that Pope Leo has a very beautiful impact over people who are not very Catholic or not even Christian, because he's very humble and he's calling to peace, he's calling to joy," added her fellow sister, Little Sister Maria Cruz. "And then a lot of people wanted really to meet him."
