Hundreds of thousands of young Catholics gathered in Rome on Saturday evening for a special overnight vigil, open-air sleepover, and morning Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV — marking a highlight of the Holy Year 2025.
According to Italian media, up to one million pilgrims from 146 countries have traveled to Rome for the event, with around 68% coming from Europe. Many participants have journeyed from conflict zones, including Lebanon, Iraq, Myanmar, Ukraine, Syria, and South Sudan.
Throughout the past week, young pilgrims have been arriving in Rome to take part in this unique Jubilee celebration. Saturday’s vigil at Tor Vergata, in eastern Rome, served as the spiritual climax. Water trucks and water cannons kept the crowds cool as temperatures approached 30°C before the Pope’s arrival.
“It’s something spiritual that you can only experience every 25 years,” said Francisco Michel, a pilgrim from Mexico. “As a young person, having the chance to meet the Pope like this feels like spiritual growth.”
Chloe Jobbour, a 19-year-old Catholic from Lebanon, described the atmosphere as chaotic but beautiful, saying that’s part of the Jubilee’s magic. Traveling with more than 200 members of the Community of the Beatitudes — a charismatic group based in France — she shared how it took her two hours to have dinner at an overwhelmed KFC on Friday night. The Salesian school hosting her group is an hour away by bus, but, like many others, she considered the inconvenience part of the pilgrimage experience.
“I didn’t expect it to be any easier than this. I knew it would be like this,” she said as her group gathered on the steps of a church near the Vatican on Saturday morning to sing and pray before heading to Tor Vergata.
The celebration was overshadowed by tragedy when the Vatican confirmed that an 18-year-old Egyptian woman died from a suspected heart attack during the pilgrimage. Pope Leo XIV personally met with her group to express his condolences to her family on Saturday.
Rome’s squares were filled with Christian rock concerts, inspiring talks, and confession lines stretching for hours as young Catholics waited to confess to one of the 1,000 priests offering the sacrament in a dozen languages at the historic Circus Maximus.
Security measures were stepped up, with gates blocking unauthorized items and instructions for pilgrims to carry only essentials to ease checks. Volunteers handed out water bottles, and a city-run app by Acea mapped 2,660 free water points across Rome to help pilgrims stay hydrated.
