Pope Leo XIV Releases World Youth Day Message: Bring to Christ Your Questions and Wounds
The Vatican released on November 3 Pope Leo XIV's message for the 41st World Youth Day. The message, on the theme "Take courage: I have conquered the world!" (John 16:33), was signed on October 22, the memorial of Saint John Paul II. World Youth Day will be celebrated in local Churches on November 22, the Solemnity of Christ the King, and its international gathering will be held in Seoul, South Korea, from August 3 to 8, 2027.
In the message, the Pope tells young people that some of them know what it means to experience loneliness, disappointment, or the fear of not being good enough, and that it is in circumstances like these that the Gospel's invitation to take courage is heard. He names the pressures weighing on the young: anxiety about the future, pressure to succeed and appear perfect, and the stress of constant comparison with others or with unattainable, manufactured ideals under the influence of carefully curated social media images, which can make it hard to recognize and accept who they truly are. Faith, he writes, does not immediately dispel the darkness, but neither does it leave us alone in it; and technology cannot replace authentic human closeness, but can only imitate empathy.
"Bring to Christ your questions and your wounds," the Pope writes, "but also the wounds that tear apart your societies and set your countries against one another. Bring to him this creation that groans and suffers, the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, which Pope Francis taught us to hear." Preparing for Seoul, he adds, means more than preparing the practical things for the trip: "prepare your hearts."
The message closes with the words of Saint John Paul II: "Do not be afraid! Open wide the doors to Christ." World Youth Day was established by Saint John Paul II in 1985 and is celebrated annually in local Churches, with periodic international gatherings.
(Source: The Vatican)
Source: The Vatican
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：教宗良十四世。Edgar Beltrán, The Pillar 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Pope Leo XIV. Photo by Edgar Beltrán, The Pillar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
