Pope Leo XIV encouraged young people to be headlights of hope in today’s world, in a video message in English, issued in the state of the Chicago White Sox, during a celebration for his Petrino Ministry and for the solemnity of the Holy Trinity.
The message was part of the celebrations organized by the Archdiocese of Chicago, led by Cardinal Blase Cupich, who wanted to pay tribute to the first American and Peruvian Pope in History, born in Chicago in 1955.
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“I would like to send a special greeting to all young people – to you who are gathered here today – and those who can be seeing this greeting through technological means, on the Internet,” said Leo XIV.
The Pontiff acknowledged that young people can go through many problems, but said that in the midst of all “God is present” and “in many different ways, God seeks them, calls them, invites them to come to meet their Son Jesus Christ, through the Scriptures, perhaps through a friend or a relative.”
That search, the Holy Father continued, aims to serve others, to be really hope for others, so that this hope goes “for the entire world.”
Promise of hope
“The young people gathered here I want to tell you, once again, that they are the promise of hope for many of us,” said the Pope.
“The world looks at them and tells them: we need them, we want them with us to share this mission – as a church and in society – to proclaim a message of true hope and to promote peace, to promote harmony between all peoples.”
“San Agustín,” he continued, “tells us that if we want the world to be a better place, we must start with ourselves, we must start with our own lives, our own hearts.”
“And so, in that sense, when meeting as a community of faith, when celebrating in the Archdiocese of Chicago, by offering your experience of joy and hope, you can understand, you can discover that you are also, in fact, headlights of hope,” said the Pope.
After encouraging faith in Christ, the Pontiff explained that young people can carry a message of hope and “promote peace and unity worldwide.”
Light of hope for the world
“When I see each of you, when I see how people meet to celebrate their faith, I realize how much hope there is in the world,” said the Pope.
Leo XIV then stressed that “in this Jubilee Year of Hope, Christ, which is our hope, truly calls us all to unite, so that we are a true living example: the light of hope in today’s world.”
“I would like to invite everyone to take a moment, to open their hearts to God, to the love of God, to that peace that only the Lord can give us. To feel the deeply beautiful, how strong, how significant the love of God is in our lives. And recognize that, although we do nothing to deserve the love of God, God, in his generosity, continue to spill his love about us.”
Pope Leo XIV also stressed that while God “gives us his love, he only asks us to be generous and share with others what he has given us.”
Finally, the Holy Father gave his blessing to all those present and encouraged them to be true bearers of hope in the midst of the challenges of today’s world.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I am husband since 2008. With my wife we have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before birth. Since I joined ACI Press in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Colonia, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the family’s synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Sinodality, in 2023. I follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers the persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as the ecclesial news in the region.