What you need to know about the Jubilee of Youth in Rome

The organizers of the Jubilee, which has already attracted nearly 17 million people to Rome since the beginning of the year, have announced that one million young people are expected in the Eternal City for this week of festivities. This is the largest gathering organized as part of the “Holy Year”—an event held every 25 years by the Catholic Church.

The young pilgrims officially registered come from 146 different countries. More than two-thirds are European, although all continents are represented. The largest single group will be made up of hosts, with the participation of nearly 90,000 Italians. Delegations from war-torn countries are also expected to attend, coming from Lebanon, Iraq, Myanmar, Israel, South Sudan, and Ukraine.

At the end of World Youth Day in Lisbon in 2023, Pope Francis gave participants two dates to look forward to: Rome in 2025 and then Seoul, South Korea, in 2027. This double announcement was unusual in itself, especially since the events were separated by two years rather than three, as is usually the case for World Youth Day.

The purpose was to insert the Jubilee of Youth in Rome, a major event of the Holy Year that in many ways resembles WYD—to the point that some organizers have given it the same name—between the two official meetings in Portugal and South Korea.

This Jubilee of Youth is expected to attract fewer participants than the WYD in Lisbon (1.5 million participants at the final Mass) but more than those in Panama in 2019 (700,000 participants). Finally, we can expect Leo to take advantage of this jubilee meeting to invite young people to the WYD in Seoul.

Elected on May 8, Pope Leo XIV has held numerous meetings and audiences in recent weeks, but has never had the opportunity to meet with young people specifically.

His two predecessors, Francis, with World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro (2013), and Benedict XVI, with World Youth Day in Cologne (2005), also had the opportunity during their first summer to address Catholic youth. These events were significant moments at the beginning of their respective pontificates.

In addition to the major events scheduled in the official program, the new pope is also expected to participate in private audiences with certain groups of young people during the week.

The Youth Jubilee will follow the “classic” WYD program. To open the event, a “welcome Mass” will be celebrated on July 29 at 7 p.m. by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the dicastery for evangelization, in St. Peter's Square. The “arms” of Bernini's colonnades—composed of 284 columns and 88 pillars arranged in four rows—can accommodate tens of thousands of people, but it will likely be packed.

In the following days, more than 70 spiritual and cultural activities are being organized throughout the city of Rome for various groups. Then, on August 1, the young people will have a “day of penance,” with the opportunity to go to confession.

This event will take place at the Circus Maximus, an ancient Roman stadium covering 90,000 square meters where chariot races were held, located between the Palatine Hill and the Aventine Hill. On its lawn—the original stands have disappeared—the organizers have set up 200 confessionals where a thousand priests speaking more than a dozen languages, including Hungarian, Slovak, Korean, and Chinese, will take turns hearing confessions.

Finally, on the weekend of August 2 and 3, young people will converge on the south of Rome for their last meeting place: the Tor Vergata university campus, which covers an area of some 237 acres near Rome’s beltway.

On Saturday, there will be a vigil at 8:30 p.m. with Leo XIV. During this event, the pope will answer three questions, one each from a young Mexican, a young Italian, and a young person from the United States on the themes of friendship, courage, and spirituality.

The young people will sleep under the stars before concluding the Jubilee with the pope, who will celebrate Mass at 9 a.m. on August 3. The number of participants at the vigil, estimated at one million, could increase for Sunday Mass, according to organizers. In 2000, with John Paul II, World Youth Day brought together 2 million young people on the grounds of the same university.

This meeting in the middle of the Mediterranean summer represents a challenge for the city of Rome. Municipal authorities and the Italian government pointed this out at a press conference on July 23. In a city already crowded with thousands of tourists every day, some roads will be temporarily closed to traffic and metro stations will be shut down. Additional transportation, particularly buses, will be provided for pilgrims.

Numerous institutions have been requisitioned to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of participants: 370 parishes, more than 400 schools and extracurricular facilities, and 500 families, but above all the Fiera di Roma convention center, which will welcome 25,000 young people.

For meals, 20 catering points are planned throughout the city. Special measures have been taken to cope with the high temperatures (the forecast is for an average of between roughly 90ºF and 93ºF during the event). Five million bottles of water will be available at more than 2,600 distribution points, and 70 mist sprayers will be in operation to cool the air.

More than 4,000 people and 500 volunteers from the Holy See are expected to serve as guides for the young people, and medical emergency services will be deployed if necessary (43 ambulances and a helicopter). A high level of security will be in place, involving 3,000 civil protection volunteers and a thousand municipal police officers, law enforcement officers, and firefighters.

When asked about the environmental impact of the jubilee, Rome's mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, gave assurances that the infrastructure had been designed with the environment in mind. He specified, for example, that recyclable materials had been used in Tor Vergata (no cement), that the facilities built on site were partially removable, and that water use would also comply with sustainable consumption standards.