Overview
- Pope Leo XIV visited Assisi on Thursday, August 6, 2026, meeting thousands of young people at Santa Maria degli Angeli and celebrating Mass for the closing of the Go! Franciscan Youth Meeting.
- He urged young Catholics to embrace Franciscan values — voluntary poverty, going to the margins, and bodily solidarity with the poor — as concrete responses to injustice and social fragmentation.
- The pope contrasted Gospel radicalism with fundamentalism, warning against the political exploitation of religion and calling Christians to be peacemakers rather than partisans.
- Speaking about his own vocation, the pope described daily commitment and accompaniment as essential, and young participants said the visit renewed their sense of being ‘the Church’ and encouraged active, not passive, engagement.
- Set around the Porziuncola during the Franciscan commemorations for St. Francis, the visit aims to push youth formation and parish renewal and could strengthen the Church’s focus on direct encounter, silence, and local peacebuilding efforts.