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Pope Leo’s Q & A address to the young people taking part in the
“Go! Franciscan Youth Meeting 2026” Santa Maria degli Angeli – Assisi
Piazza Santa Maria degli Angeli (Assisi) – Thursday, 6 August 2026
Question from Karolina (Zagreb)
Holy Father,
My name is Karolina, I come from Croatia, from the parish and basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua in Zagreb.
We have grown up in Franciscan parishes, accompanied by the friars and learning from Saint Francis that the Gospel is proclaimed above all through the witness of our lives, through joy, simplicity, fraternity and being close to everyone.
Thanks to this experience we have discovered a living faith that does not remain confined within our churches, but is expressed through service, hospitality and hope for others.
However, today we live in a rapidly changing world, where many young people struggle to find points of reference and build authentic relationships and to open their hearts to God.
We too want to be credible witnesses to the Gospel wherever we live, study and work, bringing the light of Christ with the simplicity and fraternal spirit of Saint Francis.
Holy Father, what advice would you give to us young people who have grown up in the Franciscan spiritual tradition, so that we can remain true disciples of Christ, bringing hope to our peers, without losing the joy of the Gospel, the simplicity of heart, and the closeness to others that gives Christian witness its credibility?
The Holy Father’s Reply
Thank you for this question, Karolina.
First of all, good morning to all of you!
I would also like to greet the young people inside the Basilica who are joining us via livestream. I am very happy to be here with you!
Now, Karolina, thank you for your question.
I think that everyone listening could sense that your question already contained part of the answer.
You have experienced first-hand the spirit of simplicity, fraternity and closeness that has captured your heart and enabled your faith to grow within an open community.
You come from a part of Europe that was marked by war and the dangerous intertwining of religious identity and nationalism only thirty years ago.
Yet, for centuries, the Franciscans have fostered dialogue and encouraged peaceful coexistence among Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Muslims
In today’s world, staying true to this tradition of closeness is like swimming against the current. It means purifying our memories and cultivating reconciliation.
More and more, Christians will be called to be artisans of peace in societies tempted to use religion to promote competing identities.
Being witnesses to Christ is therefore both captivating and demanding.
It broadens our minds and opens our hearts, freeing us from artificial boundaries and the fears created by misinformation and prejudice.
Choosing to reject the culture of power and build a civilization of love is not immediately understood or accepted.
However, Saint Francis teaches that the radicalism of the Gospel is the very opposite of fundamentalism.It does not make us blind or violent.
Instead, it makes us aware and attentive.
It makes us eager to follow Jesus and humble and welcoming towards everyone.
It is not an easy path, but it brings great joy.
Now, try to imagine this place eight centuries ago.
In the open countryside, hundreds of young friars from all over Europe gathered around Francis.
Picture them as the sources describe:
“Company by company, here forty, there a hundred, and there eighty together, all employed in speaking of God, in prayers, in tears, and in exercises of charity.
They behaved themselves with such great silence and sobriety that no clamor was heard there” (The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi, XVIII).
This silence contrasts sharply with war and all its violence, clamor, and cruelty.
The simple mats on which the friars slept represent peace, just as your sleeping bags do today.
This is the Church: an assembly of brothers and sisters, open to all.
Dear young people, it is beautiful to gather together to “speak of God” and reflect on life itself in his light, in all its beauty, mystery, and seriousness.
Bear witness to this way of life wherever you are, especially at a time when technology makes it harder for us to meet one another in person.
Saint Francis understood that embracing poverty enables us to draw near to those who are far away, foster encounters, and exchange our gifts.
He grasped that the Gospel cannot be separated from the choices of Jesus Christ, who became poor so that we might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9 – you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.).
The Gospel is Jesus’s own life, his journey, and his unwavering trust in his Father. Whenever we gather in his name, he is present among us (Matthew 18:20 – “where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”), filling our hearts with free and genuine joy (Jn 20:20).
It is this joy, more than words, that evangelizes, and it cannot be hidden. Thank you.
My name is Giovanni. I am 27 years old, and I am from Bologna.
Young people like us live in a culture dominated by the temporary.
The prospect of making a lifelong commitment fills us with fear.
Yet, in his unique and loving way, God continually speaks to us and calls us to follow him.
He promises us life and joy while gradually revealing our vocation.
My question is this: How can we courageously and wholeheartedly say “yes” to him without “putting our hand to the plow and looking back” by dwelling too much on the hardships and sacrifices the journey may entail?
What helped you most on your vocational journey?
The Holy Father’s Reply
Thank you, Giovanni, for this courageous question.
It expresses a longing for what endures.
Today, we tend to speak negatively about what is temporary.
Yet, there was a time when the Church constantly taught people to appreciate the meaning of the temporary because this world is passing away and time is fleeting.
Only God remains because God is eternal.
Therefore, we must ask ourselves what has changed.
Otherwise, we risk becoming people who simply long for the past while failing to face the present or take responsibility for the future.
The stability that once characterized traditional societies is disappearing almost everywhere in the world.
Entire generations could once live their whole lives with little to no change around them.
Society was highly structured, and much of life seemed already mapped out.
In that context, the Church encouraged people not to settle for a predetermined destiny, but rather to discover the eternal significance of every action.
Today, however, a confused understanding of freedom leads us to believe that nothing in life is ever truly decided because the world around us and we ourselves are constantly changing.
Yet, this illusion only increases our fears and makes it easier to lose our way. In such a context, having the courage to make a definitive choice may be the most revolutionary act of all.
Choosing “forever” does not imprison us; rather, it opens us to greater possibilities.
Love is an exodus. It is a path to be discovered, a journey that God walks with us on.
This is the meaning of every vocation.
Sacred Scripture continually invites us to live this way, like those called to rise and set out on their own journey, receiving its direction and meaning from the Lord, so as to love according to his plan
(1 Corinthians 13 – If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; 5 it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrong but rejoices in the right. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect;
10 but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. 13 So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love).
(1 John 4 – Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error .7 Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his own Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because he first loved us. 20 If any one says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot[b] love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also).
Here, we see the inseparable connection between faith, trust, and faithfulness.
Faith reveals the illusion that we can solve our problems by running away from our commitments or taking a few steps down ever-changing roads without ever truly arriving anywhere.
We may multiply our experiences, acquaintances, and possessions yet remain in the same place.
The human cost is immense, and the resulting inner emptiness is profound. All too often, people end up using and being used by others.
“For ever,” then, is a grace that God enables us to respond to through our fidelity so that we may attain the fullness of life (John 10:10 – The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.).
For this reason, from adolescence onward, it is important to learn to know ourselves, make decisions, and stake our lives on them—in other words, respond to the Lord who calls us.
In adulthood, we should also remain faithful to our existing and future commitments.
This is an adventure in which no one should ever feel alone. Like faith itself, it lasts until our final breath.
Looking back on my life,I can say with certainty that the Lord has never left me alone.
He has always been with me, often placing people beside me with whom I could share the journey.
As a priest, a member of the Augustinian community, and a missionary, I found a light that has guided me to this day and to the moment when I had to accept another unique calling: to be Pope.
When we embrace the unique plan God has prepared for us, we discover that our deepest vocation, written in every human heart, is a call to communion.
We hear that call not only once, but every day.
Sin obscures this truth by introducing mistrust, rivalry, and suspicion into our most fundamental relationships.
Thankfully, every vocation is also a journey of redemption and healing.
Jesus’ invitation to follow him reveals our dignity and teaches us to honor the dignity of others.
This is done by placing our trust in them and proving ourselves worthy of their trust.
This dynamic is so liberating that it deserves our wholehearted commitment.
Thank you.
Question from Luigi (Paternò, Sicily)
Holy Father, My name is Luigi.
I am twenty-two years old and come from Paternò, a small town in Sicily.
I speak on behalf of the Franciscan Youth of Sicily, a group of young people seeking to live the Franciscan charism.
I would like to ask you about one aspect of Saint Francis that has always struck me deeply.
“Brother Francis promises obedience and reverence to the Lord Pope Honorius and to his canonically elected successors, and to the Roman Church” (Rule, I).
Although he lived in a time when the Church was marked by contradictions and internal difficulties, he did not choose the path of heresy.
Instead of attacking or judging the Church of his day, he chose to obey the Pope — a free and revolutionary decision, fully in keeping with his spirit of being “lesser.”
His only desire was to overcome the poverty of judgment through the compassion and reparation that only love can bring.
Today, many young people say that they “believe, but not in the Church.”
Even within our own communities, we sometimes see a church marked by contradictions and internal crises.
So, my question is this: How can we remain faithful to this reparative love?
Why is it so difficult to see the Church as a mother who, despite her wounds, is always ready to welcome and love us?
The Holy Father’s Reply
Your question is timely and brings us to the heart of Saint Francis’s experience.
Answering it allows us to share in the Lord Jesus’ longing for his Church.
Francis discovered this desire while contemplating Christ Crucified.
We, too, must always return to that desire.
Throughout history, and even today, many people struggle to experience the Church as Jesus desires.
This causes deep suffering and leaves wounds and disappointments.
For some, it even becomes an obstacle to faith.
In the Gospel, Jesus himself warns us about the danger of scandal, especially as it relates to his disciples and how they can affect the little ones and the poor.
Yet, from the beginning, he desired to gather people who would overcome the divisions that typically separate humanity.
Around Jesus, men and women became brothers and sisters who would have otherwise never met.
This miracle continues to take place in the Church, and thank God it still does.
Even in our cities, where so many invisible walls separate people, it remains extraordinary.
So many forms of discrimination and inequality disappear the moment we begin to recognize one another as brothers and sisters!
There is another aspect of this revolutionary unity.
As Jesus says in Mark 10:43, “It shall not be so among you.”
Things should not be as they are among the rulers of this world, who seek power, prestige, and domination.
Instead, Jesus tells us: “Whoever wants to be great must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all” (vv. 43–44).
Jesus’s desire for the Church is clear: the Church is to become his body and demonstrate his life by exercising a different kind of authority—one that uplifts others rather than oppressing them.
The Word of God, the sacraments, and the practice of fraternal love are the means by which the image of Christ is formed within us.
Francis walked this path, not to dominate but to serve, not to grasp but to receive, and not to withhold but to give back.
This is the life of God, which continually renews the Church, making her a free people and a place of refreshment and salvation.
“Francis, go and rebuild my house, which, as you see, is falling into ruin!” (Second Life of Saint Francis, 10).
Each of us has a role in this ongoing work.
Although we have different responsibilities and vocations, we walk together, encouraging, supporting, and correcting one another along the way.
What matters is that each of us faithfully fulfills the role entrusted to us.
Then, we will speak of the Church with the same affection one has for a mother because we will know that we belong to her.
Our love will embrace the people and history through which Jesus Christ comes to and remains with us. “I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
This is the gospel we proclaim humbly.
To share in our Lord’s desire, we do not need to pretend to be better than we are. Rather, we need only acknowledge the risen Jesus in our lives and allow him to act.
Thank you.
Let us conclude this first part by asking for God’s grace and the Lord’s blessing on each of us. [Blessing]
