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Rome became the epicenter of a global faith movement over the weekend, as more than 1 million young Catholics answered Pope Leo XIV’s call for faith and service.
“My young brothers and sisters, you are the sign that a different world is possible,” the pontiff told the Jubilee of Youth crowd in Tor Vergata, encouraging the sea of young faithful to embrace dialogue over division.
Father Michael Tidd, headmaster at the Delbarton School in Morristown, New Jersey, told Fox News Monday that Pope Leo’s message deeply resonated with the audience.
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Pope Leo XIV greets young people as he arrives in Tor Vergata, on the outskirts of Rome, for the Jubilee of Youth Mass on August 03, 2025 in Rome, Italy. (Elisabetta Trevisan – Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)
“I think what Pope Leo says that resonates so well is that he’s not afraid to ask hard questions and to challenge young people to live their faith more deeply, more authentically, to go beyond themselves and not just worry about their own concerns, but seek the good of their brothers and sisters,” he told “Fox & Friends.”
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Pope Leo XIV tours the Tor Vergata camp in the popemobile to greet all the young pilgrims and faithful. Pope Leo XIV presided over the Holy Mass and the Angelus after the 2025 Youth Jubilee at Tor Vergata in Rome. (Marco Iacobucci/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
According to Tidd, the pope’s ability to connect stems from a natural “ease,” a way of communicating that is neither overbearing nor condescending.
Rather than lecturing the young Christians, he speaks to them personally, with a touch of warmth and wisdom.
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“He has an ability to engage readily, and you see that in his smaller audiences and the audiences at St. Peter’s Square and certainly even here, his ability to catch their attention and to have them listen to him, not as someone who’s admonishing them or chastising them, but someone who is encouraging, almost like a coach,” Tidd observed.
“[He’s] encouraging them, motivating them to seek a deeper relationship with Christ, and also to bring the fruits of that relationship to their relationships with their brothers and sisters.”
The pope presided over a prayer vigil Saturday evening on the outskirts of Rome where he answered questions from young pilgrims, followed by a Sunday mass.
