«The world needs you to build peace». That was the appeal Pope Leo XIV made to young people at the Rimini Meeting on Saturday afternoon, at the end of a welcome marked by applause, stadium-style chants and an overwhelming crowd of well-wishers.
The Pontiff reached the Youth Village at around 3.40pm. Faced with the young people’s enthusiasm, Leo XIV appeared visibly moved and chose to address them directly, placing communion, friendship and peace at the heart of his message.
«Thank you for being here — he said — thank you for this welcome and for this enthusiasm, which is a sign of the spirit. Years ago, Saint John Paul II said: if the world today needs anything, it is communion. Today we can repeat those same words. And if there is to be communion in the world, it will be thanks to you, young people, who know how to build communion through friendship, who know how to respect one another in order to build peace — and the world needs you to build peace. God bless you all».
A message entrusted directly to the new generations, called upon by the Pope to build relationships grounded in friendship and mutual respect, and to turn communion into a concrete instrument of peace.
The meeting with young people came after the first stages of Leo XIV’s visit to the Meeting. The Pontiff’s helicopter had landed at the Rimini Fiera at 2.55pm, following a private visit to the community of Augustinian nuns at the Monastery of Sant’Antonio da Padova in Pennabilli.
Shortly afterwards, at 3.08pm, Leo XIV was greeted by a jubilant crowd in the corridors and halls of the Meeting, where he visited two exhibitions. The first, “Late have I loved you, beauty so ancient and so new — Augustine of Hippo”, in Pavilion C2, is dedicated to the figure and to the human and spiritual experience of Saint Augustine. The second, “Léon Harmel, the prophecy of an enterprise”, in Pavilion C1, traces the story of one of the forerunners of the Church’s social doctrine.
He then moved on to the Youth Village, delivering the most direct appeal of the first part of his Rimini visit: build communion in order to build peace.
