Leo tells young people the “world are looking to you to be new saints”

Assisi (AsiaNews) – Pope Leo XIV undertook a pastoral visit this morning at Santa Maria degli Angeli (Assisi), where the eponymous basilica contains and preserves the Porziuncola, the small church where Saint Francis understood his vocation.

The papal visit marks the eighth centenary of the passing of the “Poverello”, which includes special events and initiatives, including the display of his remains.

After arriving by papal helicopter, Pope Leo met with the young participants of the “Go! Franciscan Youth Meeting 2026.”

Welcome from the authorities

Archbishop Felice Accrocca of Assisi, along with several local and national officials, welcomed the pontiff, after Leo landed at the Migaghelli sports field at 8:30 am.

Afterwards, the pontiff went to the Convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli, where he was welcomed by the general ministers of the Franciscan Orders: Brother Massimo Fusarelli (OFM), Brother Carlos Alberto Trovarelli (OFM Conventual), and Brother Roberto Genuin (OFM Capuchin).

The provincial minister of the Friars Minor of Umbria and Sardinia, Brother Marco Vianelli, expressed “deep joy and sincere gratitude” in welcoming the pontiff to the Porziuncola.

Vianelli noted that this “small and holy place” preserves the “living memory of the origins of the Franciscan charism.” The last pope to visit the Umbrian city in 2022 was Francis, who took his name from the Saint of Assisi.

Leo’s “moving” presence carries a “particularly intense meaning”, linked to the gathering of thousands of young people from across Europe, “around the Porziuncola” where “They rediscovered in Francis a teacher who is always relevant,” he said. He especially touched on themes such as peace, marginalisation, identity, and mission.

Interacting with young people

Subsequently, the pope met with some 2,500 young men and women in Santa Maria degli Angeli Square.

There, in the shade of the basilica’s parvis, he answered questions from three young people, from Zagreb (Croatia), Bologna (Italy), and Paternò (Italy) respectively, participants in the “Go! Franciscan Youth Meeting 2026”, sponsored by Eni, held in Assisi from 3 to 6 August 2026, with the aim of “rediscovering the message of Saint Francis”.

Karolina, from Zagreb, asked the pope for advice on how to avoid “losing the joy of the Gospel”, as young people raised in Franciscan spirituality.

Leo answered focusing the Franciscans’ witness of “closeness”. Being faithful to it means “going against the grain,” he said, noting that “Christians will increasingly be asked to become peacemakers.”

“Bearing witness to Christ therefore remains both fascinating and demanding, because it opens our minds and hearts beyond artificial boundaries – that is, beyond the fears created by misinformation and the walls of prejudice,” Leo said.

“Removing the culture of power and building the civilisation of love is not immediately understood,” he added.

Hence, the pontiff urged young people to learn about the “Gospel radicalism” of the saint of Assisi. It “is the opposite of fundamentalism: it does not make us blind and violent, but sensitive and attentive, always following Jesus and therefore humble”.

He called on young people to imagine the “young brothers” gathered in that place with Francis, eight centuries ago, in silence.

“That silence is the opposite of war, with its violence, shouts, and cruelty. The mats of those friars, like your sleeping bags today, speak of peace. This is the Church: an assembly of brothers and sisters, to which all are invited,” Leo explained.

Giovanni, from Bologna, asked the pope a question about the fear of “definitive life choices,” immersed in a “culture of the temporary”.

“Deciding forever does not lock us in a cage, but opens us to a greater dynamism. Love is an exodus, a path to be discovered,” the pope said.

“In my experience, I can say that 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, and a missionary, I have found a kind of light that has guided me until today, until I had to say ‘yes’ to a very special calling, that of being Pope.”

Turning to Luigi da Paternò, who spoke about the experience of many young people of “believing, but not in the Church”, the pope stressed the timeliness of the issue, which is something that Saint Francis also experienced.

“Jesus’s desire […] is to gather a people, in which what generally divides human beings is overcome,” he said. “How many forms of discrimination and inequality can end immediately once we recognise one another as brothers and sisters!”

What is more, “It is important to do our part. Then we will speak of the Church with the affection with which we speak of a Mother,” he noted.

The pontiff’s homily

After the interaction with the three young people, Leo XIV celebrated Mass with the youth meeting participants in the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, on the Solemnity of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

In his homily, Pope Leo stressed that in Assisi, “everything whispers that our lives can take on a new form, radiate light and heal the world.”

“[T]he reason why Saint Francis still draws us to himself, even eight hundred years after his death, lies in the grandeur of humanity that led him to abandon familiar ways in order to find a new path that is more consistent with that of Jesus,” he said.

This means remembering “the energy of Christianity”, with its “beginnings”, its “many beginnings”.

Turning to the young people, the pope said that, “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; embrace Sister Poverty!”

Citing the title of the Franciscan gathering, “Go!”, he stressed the “mission, a sending forth onto paths for which we have no maps, because they are opened by listening to the heart, obeying the Holy Spirit, and following the Risen One wherever he has chosen to go before us.”

This proposal means going “to the margins, where the injustice and arrogance of a few deny the dignity and dreams of many, of far too many sons and daughters of God.”

Leo also noted that Pope Francis was inspired by his namesake, Saint Francis.

“Yet, breaking free from the culture of power, and tearing down the walls that separate human beings from one another, is never a betrayal of our families, towns or traditions. Instead, it means freeing them from their ghosts, from enemies invented out of fear or ignorance and from the violence,” he added.

“To trust in God is to rediscover, like Francis and Clare, a world of brothers and sisters to cherish and serve, not to exploit and dominate. Not a world to defend, but to embrace.”

“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.