Millions of Spaniards have turned out to see and listen to Pope Leo XIV since he arrived in Madrid on June 6; the excitement has been palpable. An estimated 1.2 million people participated in Sunday’s mass and in the Corpus Christi procession which the Pope led. He spoke before 12,000 representatives of the worlds of culture, art, economics and sports and received a sustained standing ovation for as long as six minutes, after addressing the Spanish Parliament this Monday.
It is Pope Leo’s dialogue with the 600,000 youth who participated in a Saturday night Prayer Vigil for youth, however, which, over the long-term, may prove one of his most significant interventions.
Before the prayer vigil, per se, began, Pope Leo answered questions posed to him by eight older adolescents and university-age youth, who spoke on behalf of the Catholic youth groups of which they are a part. He answered with a combination of vigor and compassion, developing themes which he has been emphasizing throughout his trip: that to be a Christian means you care for the poor, work to ensure justice, turn away from ideologies, which are fleeting, to become truth-seekers—and have the courage to stand up to the emperors and powers of the day, to defend that truth.
In concluding before the prayer vigil began, Pope Leo posed to the hundreds of thousands of listening youths that they take responsibility for changing history, entrusting to them “the mission to be truly human,” so as to be “the sparks of a new humanity”:
“A young Christian, in fact, is a source of light both in joy and in trial, giving flavor to reality as a person who enjoys life from within, without looking to wealth, pleasure or power as a source of flavor. Such is our freedom, which has its source in faith. It is capable of bringing light and flavor to every society, to every human experience. On the other hand, when life loses its flavor, it is as if it were stolen from us: we no longer feel it as our own. In the face of the emptiness of indifference and compliance, before the violence of war and lies, you must be the sparks of a new humanity.
“I want to entrust all of you the mission to be truly human. Yes, be human: men and women of flesh and blood! Not mere appearances, but trustworthy faces. People who seek justice because they hunger for it, as for their daily bread. People who desire an honest and upright life, because they gladly do to others what they would like others to do to them. Be human as Christ is human, the perfect man, the risen One who shares history with us in every age…
“This, dear young people, is the virtue that will change history the most. You can change history! Do it with love!”
