Mass, celebrated by Léon XIV, takes place the day after a giant vigil that was held on Saturday evening in the vast space open on the outskirts of the city.
Celebrations that lasted a week are coming up this Sunday, the highest point of the holy year of the jubilee.
Saturday evening, before the vigil, the organizers reported the presence of 800,000 people. The Vatican announced on Sunday that this number had increased to a million people.
Most participants slept on the floor under tents, in sleeping bags or on mats, while waiting for Sunday mass under a sunny sky.
To the sound of the music of a choir, bishops dressed in green began to fill the huge scene – covered with a golden arch and a massive cross – before the pope, who arrived by helicopter, begins mass.
The Vatican said that 450 bishops and around 700 priests participated in mass.
This rally takes place almost three months after the start of the pontificate of Léon XIV, 69, the first American pope, and 25 years after the jubilee of the year 2000, during which more than two million young people had participated in the World Youth Days at the call of Pope John Paul II.
