ROME (AP) – Hundreds of thousands of young Catholics poured into vast fields on Saturday’s outskirts of Roman suburbs for highlights of the Vatican’s Holy Year weekend: evening vigils, outdoor sleep, morning mass was celebrated by Lope Leo XIV, who marks his mark The first big encounter With the next generation of Catholics.
Leo will certainly like what he is seeing: last week, a band of young Catholics from around the world invaded the area around St. Peter’s Square for a special jubilee celebration.
Young people pass through cobblestone streets in toned T-shirts, praying for the rosary, singing hymns on guitars, bongo drums and tambourines. To protect them from the sun, using their flags as tarps, they took over the entire Piazza tribe for Christian Rock concerts and inspirational lectures, standing for hours at Circus Maximus, confessing their sins to 1,000 priests who provided sacraments in one different language.
On Saturday, they began arriving at Toh Vergatafield, on the east side of Rome, to meet Leo, the pinnacle of Jubilee celebrations. After walking 5 km (3 miles) from the nearest subway station, they passed the security check, picked up boxed meals, set up camping, backpacks, sleeping bags, and planted planted umbrellas.
Leo was selected in May The first American Popeand was flying by helicopter on Saturday night, so I hosted an all-night and question and answer session. He then returned to the Vatican for the night and returned to the Popemovie runaway and Mass Sunday morning.
Mini World Youth Day 25 years from now
It’s all about the atmosphere of World Youth Day, the Catholic Woodstock Festival, which St. John Paul II became famous in Rome in 2000 for the same Torvergata Field. Later, before an estimated 2 million people, John Paul told young pilgrims that he was a “morning sentinel” at the dawn of the third millennium.
Officials initially expected 500,000 young people this weekend, but Leo suggested that the number could reach 1 million.
“It’s a bit of a mess, but this is great about Jubilee,” said Chloe Jobs, a 19-year-old Lebanese Catholic who was in Rome with a group of over 200 young members of the Vititude community, a charismatic group based in France.
For example, she said it took two hours to have dinner on a Friday night, as KFC was overwhelmed by the order. The Salesio school that provided her group housing is an hour away by bus. But like many of this week, Jobbour didn’t care about the discomfort. It’s all part of the experience.
“I don’t think it would be better than that. I was expecting it this way,” she said, members of her group gather on the stairs of a church near the Vatican, singing and praying before heading to Tor Vergata.
There was already one tragedy before the all-nighter began. The Vatican confirmed that the 18-year-old Egyptian, identified as Pascare Raffic, died during the pilgrimage. Leo met with the group she was traveling with on Saturday and gave her family a palatable dol.
Most of the weather has been working together. Italian civil protection crews were ready for temperatures that could reach above 34C (93F) this week, but mercury has not exceeded 30C (85F) and is not expected.
The Romans are inconvenient, but generous
Romans who did not flee the onslaught are inconvenient by additional horde of cities with inadequate public transport. Residents share social media posts of the explosion by Romans gathering at bus stops where children flood subway platforms and complicate commuting.
However, other Romans have welcomed the enthusiasm that young people have brought. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni marveled at the “extraordinary festival of faith, joy and hope” that young people have brought to the eternal city and provided a video welcome.
“I think that’s great,” said Lina Veddon, a Roman hairdresser. “You think faith, religion is difficult, but this is proof that it’s not.”
Verdone had already planned to bring the alternative route home on a Saturday afternoon. It would require an extra km (half mile) walk as she feared that a “invasion” of neighboring children would disrupt her normal bus route. But she said she was happy to make the sacrifice.
“You consider an invasion to be negative, but this is a positive invasion,” she said.
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