In Assisi, Pope to encourage young people to dream “great things”

By Daniele Piccini

Pope Leo XIV’s pastoral visit to the Italian town of Assisi on Thursday, 6 August, will bring to an end four days of encounters, workshops and opportunities for sharing. The Pope will answer young people’s questions and preside over Mass, inviting them, as he did a year ago during the Jubilee of Youth at Tor Vergata, not to settle for a mediocre life.

Those involved in the pastoral care of young people – such as Friar Luca de Pasquale, one of the organisers of the “GO! Franciscan Youth Meeting”, which will bring thousands of Europeans aged between 18 and 33 to the city of Saint Francis from the 3rd to the 6th of August – note that many of them often lack strong desires and have already stopped dreaming of their future.

The 38-year-old Friar Minor told to Vatican News how important it is to hear from someone like the Pope, who is able to speak to them about the fullness of life. He also spoke of the value of looking to a model of “holy restlessness” such as Saint Francis, who can speak to today’s young people as though he were their contemporary.

Friar Luca de Pasquale, one of the organisers of the event

Friar Luca, what will the programme of the Pope’s visit to Assisi look like on the morning of 6 August?

The Holy Father will arrive quite early on the morning of 6 August, at 8:30, and everything will take place at Saint Mary of the Angels, in the Basilica that houses the little Porziuncola chapel, which Francis of Assisi restored, where he lived, founded the Order of Friars Minor and died. It is a key place for our family and also for the 800th anniversary of Francis’ “Transitus”, which we are celebrating this year.

The Pope will spend a brief moment in personal prayer inside the Porziuncola. He will then go out into the square, where, before the crowd, which is unable to enter the Basilica because of capacity restrictions, he will listen to three young people from different parts of Europe, who will put three questions to him on three different subjects.

The Pope will then meet privately with the Franciscan families. Afterwards, at around 10 or 10:30, he will preside over Mass. It will also be the Solemnity of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

The forecourt of the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels, where the Pope will preside over Mass on 6 August.

A great many young people will be in Assisi: those participating in the “GO! Franciscan Youth Meeting”; those who will have just completed the 44th Franciscan March and arrived for the Pardon of Assisi; and those coming especially for Mass with Pope Leo XIV. It will be like a Franciscan World Youth Day…

We are certain that, during his homily, the Holy Father will be able to offer a word that captures the meaning of everything the young people have experienced over the preceding days. On Thursday, 6 August, after Mass and once the Pope has departed, we will present the young people with a kind of “missionary charter”.

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What will that involve?

During the days preceding their encounter with the Pope, they will take part in workshops on various subjects. On the one hand, they will be called to listen; on the other, they themselves will take centre stage and have the opportunity to express their views.

At the end, we will prepare a kind of synthesis of what emerges from the young people’s discussions and use it to draw up a missionary charter, which they will then be able to put into practice within their local communities across Europe and beyond.

The encounter with the Pope will be the culmination of four days devoted to young people. In your opinion, what will be the most important or evocative moments of those four days?

The workshops are at the heart of the entire event. On the first evening, the young people will arrive and begin by listening to an introduction that will provide a key for understanding what we are about to experience, through the words of the Bishop of Assisi, Archbishop Felice Accrocca, and Professor Marco Erba.

They will seek to place in context the experience of the Chapter of Mats of 1221, an episode in the life of Francis and the Franciscan Order that also inspires our gathering today.

We will hold workshops on peace, forgiveness and vocation. This will offer young people an opportunity to listen anew to God’s call in their lives. They will therefore spend 4 August listening, while on 5 August, through more “active” workshops, they will be able to speak and express themselves directly.

There will also be a place that is very dear to us and which we were determined to include: the Burning Bush, a dedicated chapel that the young people can visit between workshops. There will be perpetual Eucharistic adoration throughout the event at Saint Mary of the Angels, as well as an opportunity to visit two exhibitions.

The exhibition on the life of Saint Francis in Assisi.

Who organised these exhibitions?

One of them, on Francis, has been organised by us Friars Minor of Umbria and Sardinia. Its purpose is to help people discover him by stripping away many of the images that have been attributed to him and returning to Francis’ own words in his Testament.

Another exhibition has been prepared by a group of students from Lombardy. Beginning with situations of war, they identified people who brought light through the grace of the Gospel.

The event is intended for young people aged between 18 and 33, both believers and non-believers. Could you explain what expectations led you to invite non-believers and what response you hope for?

Seeing how Francis continues to attract people beyond the boundaries of faith prompted us to be a little daring and to make ourselves available to those who may wish to take a step beyond prejudice, reconnect with the important things in life and perhaps encounter the Lord. We do not know whether that will happen—it is what we hope for, but without making any assumptions.

How many young people will attend?

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Registration closed on 30 June. Around 2,150 young people will participate in the event, in addition to all those coming for the Pope’s Mass.

The figure of Saint Francis encompasses many issues close to young people’s hearts: care for the environment, a radical relationship with Christ, charity towards the most vulnerable and respect for women. In your experience, what kind of relationship do young people have with this saint?

Francis is fascinating. What attracts people to him is his simplicity, his ability to speak to the lives of young people as though he were one of their peers and, above all, the fact that Francis was always a great dreamer. He was never a young man who simply settled for what life offered, and that is something that fascinates many young people.

Whenever I meet young people here, I enjoy asking them a question. Regardless of their age, I always ask: “What is your dream? What is the greatest desire you carry in your heart?” It is sad to hear that many of them do not know how to answer. It is as though they have already given up. Yet when they listen to the story of Francis’ life, they see how he never gave up, but always dared to go further.

More than ever in recent years, Italy’s bestseller lists have been dominated by books about Saint Francis. How do you explain the fact that interest in the Poor Man of Assisi has moved beyond specialist literature and spread among the wider public?

Francis touches upon subjects that are very contemporary and highly relevant: care for creation, respect within relationships, and seeing and feeling ourselves to be brothers and sisters in a context increasingly marked by individualism. These are all themes that speak profoundly to people today.

The risk we must avoid is making Francis say things that he did not say or attributing to him an identity that is not truly his.

As part of this event, we have included an exhibition that we presented at last year’s Rimini Meeting. It will remain on display here at Saint Mary of the Angels from the beginning of the GO! event until the Feast of Saint Francis itself. While occasionally acting as guides to the exhibition, we saw people come out saying: “We had never really known Francis before!”

Could you give an example of something frequently attributed to Saint Francis that he never actually said or did?

The Canticle of Brother Sun is often interpreted as a hymn to ecology, as though Francis were the environmentalist par excellence and creatures were of fundamental importance, taking precedence over everything else in his life.

The Canticle is misunderstood when read in this way. When Francis wrote it, he had just received the stigmata at La Verna. His friars had also pushed him aside and no longer wanted him as Minister General of the Order, so spiritually he found himself in a state of solitude.

The Canticle, which is superficially attributed to Francis as a hymn to ecology, is actually a song to God. Francis draws upon creatures because they bear God’s imprint, and therefore to see them is to see something of God. This helped Francis avoid turning inwards upon his struggles and suffering.

The event is addressed to the young people of Europe. What can Saint Francis say to the Old Continent today?

Our hope is that he can help respond to the yearning for depth that young people carry within themselves; that Francis can help them pursue the questions they already hold and continue a search that may already have found its goal or destination, but which still needs to be accompanied by a father or a friendly figure.

Francis could be that figure: someone capable of crossing the boundaries of a religious context and truly embracing every possible sphere of life.

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