Italian authorities estimated that one million people attended this closing Mass of the Youth Jubilee in Tor Vergata.
The final message from Pope Leo XIV was a call to push horizons.
POPE LEO XIV
As Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, who will soon be proclaimed saints, have taught us. aspire to great things, to holiness, wherever you are. Do not settle for less. Then you will see the light of the Gospel grow each day—within yourselves and around you.
The readings of the day led Pope Leo to reflect on the value of fragility.
POPE LEO XIV
The fragility they speak of is, in fact, part of the wonder that we are. Think of the symbol of grass: isn’t a blooming meadow beautiful? Certainly, it is delicate—made of thin, vulnerable stalks, prone to wither, bend, and break. Yet, at the same time, they are quickly replaced by others that bloom after them. And the first ones generously become nourishment and fertilizer for the others as they return to the soil.
At the end of his message, the Pope remembered Pascal Rafi, the Egyptian pilgrim who died on her way to the Jubilee, and a Spanish pilgrim who couldn't reach Tor Vergata.
POPE LEO XIV
I especially remember and entrust to the Lord María and Pascal, the two young pilgrims—one from Spain and one from Egypt—who passed away in recent days.
With this liturgical celebration, one of the major events of the Jubilee came to a close, as the Church awaits the canonization of the two young Italians, Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati, in September.
JRB
Trans. CRT
