The Pope invites artists to give joy – Swiss Catholic portal

Receiving on August 2, 2025 at the Vatican the artists and animators of the vigil planned in the evening on the university site of Tor Vergata as part of the Jubilee of young people, Pope Léon XIV invited them to give them joy. Young people “so much need to find true joy, true happiness,” said the pontiff, encouraging them to share “faith, enthusiasm and joy”.

“Music, dance and the many artistic forms that you will share this afternoon with young people, are really a gift for all of us and for the whole church,” said the Holy Father.

The city of Rome has lived for a few days to the rhythm of the young people’s jubilee. Coming from around the world, dressed in t-shirts of different colors: white, yellow, blue, green, with the logo of the printed jubilee, they converge massively, holding flags from their respective countries, towards Tor Vergata. It is on this immense esplanade, east of the Italian capital that a large prayer vigil will take place from 8:30 p.m. in which Pope Leon XIV will participate.

Young people mobilized for the prayer vigil

But well before this meeting which brings together “more than half a million, it is said, perhaps a million young people from many countries of the world”, the bishop of Rome wanted to receive in the Clémentine room of the Vatican the artists, animators, actors and actresses who will animate the afternoon program.

“They will start around 3 pm and, until the arrival of the Pope and the start of the vigil, they will liven up our young people who have already been on the way, some have already arrived,” said Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for evangelization and responsible for the organization of the holy year.

The desire to find true happiness

Speaking, the pope first expressed his joy at “participating in this mission, in this service, as a bishop of Rome, as a Saint-Father”, knowing above all “faith, the enthusiasm and the joy that we share and which express what we have in our heart”. That is to say, developed the pontiff, “the desire to find happiness, joy, love, to experience faith too with the gifts that the Lord has given us: music, dance and the many artistic forms that you will share this afternoon with young people”. “Which is really a gift for all of us and for the whole Church,” he said.

Much more than half a million young people

Leon XIV wanted to organize “this little meeting, say family”, and enhance “beauty, art, music, and the talents you offer to this general public that we have in Rome these days”. Completing his brief speech, the Pope thanked his hosts, asking the Lord to “bless them and help them accompany these young people who also need to find true joy, the true happiness that we all find in Jesus Christ”.

Saturday on the campus of Tor Vergata University, where hundreds of thousands of young people converge, songs, dances and spiritual readings are linked all afternoon pending the arrival of the Pope for the vigil scheduled at 8:30 p.m. Among the artists, the Italian rock group will perform The Sun, or the Brazilian composer Thiago Brado.

It will be the second meeting of the Pope with young people, after his surprise appearance Tuesday at the end of the jubilee opening mass. “We are talking about more than half a million, perhaps a million young people from so many countries around the world,” said the head of the Catholic church, who will answer questions from three of them in the Tor Vergata podium. (cath.ch/vaticicannews/imedia/ak/be)