Pope Leo XIV encouraged young people to embrace their deepest spiritual longings, trust God amid suffering, and view forgiveness as a gradual path toward healing during a prayer vigil held Tuesday evening at Barcelona’s Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium.
The Holy Father responded to personal testimonies from three young people whose stories touched on conversion, mental health struggles, suffering, family trauma, and reconciliation.
Addressing Ferran, a young man who recently entered the Catholic Church after years of pursuing success and recognition, Pope Leo reflected on the restlessness many people experience when worldly achievements fail to satisfy the human heart.
According to Vatican News, the Pope reminded young people that this longing points toward humanity’s ultimate destiny in God.
“We are made for the infinite,” Pope Leo said. “That is why every finite horizon, every step, every achievement – while satisfying us – also propels us forward and invites us to keep searching.”
The Pope warned against what he described as the modern temptation to seek fulfillment through material success, image, and performance. According to Vatican News, he criticized the “idolatry of profit and performance” and the “cult of self-image,” describing them as distractions that can numb the conscience and distort a person’s understanding of life.
Instead, he urged young people to create space for silence and prayer.
“Look within,” he said. “Try not to be overwhelmed by the pace of life and external temptations. Cultivate moments of silence, perhaps pausing for a few minutes each day to read the Gospel and speak with God.”
The vigil also featured the testimony of Carmina, a young woman who shared her battle with depression and a previous suicide attempt. She spoke about receiving what she described as a second chance at life and asked where God can be found during moments of overwhelming darkness.
Pope Leo thanked her for her courage and acknowledged growing concerns surrounding mental health in modern society.
According to Vatican News, he said that increasing mental health struggles reveal “something deeply wrong with a certain notion of progress that subjects people to pressures, expectations and tensions that compromise healthy balances.”
The Pope pointed to Christ’s suffering on the Cross as evidence that God remains close to those enduring pain and loneliness.
“The Son of God took all the anguish, loneliness and suffering of humanity upon himself, in his own flesh,” Pope Leo said. “In those dark hours, as he was dying on the cross, Jesus shared our pain and revealed to us the face of a compassionate God.”
While recognizing that suffering can make God seem distant, the Pope emphasized that Christ’s Passion reveals the opposite truth.
“The cross of Jesus tells us that God does not abandon us, that he is at our side, crucified with us in moments of pain and extreme loneliness,” he said.
At the same time, Pope Leo cautioned Christians against offering simplistic explanations for suffering.
“We must not spiritualize pain, superficially attributing it to ‘God’s will’ or to some mysterious plan of his,” he said, according to Vatican News. “God does not want suffering. He carries it with us.”
The final testimony came from Cecilia, a young woman whose childhood was marked by domestic violence, addiction, and family separation. She asked how she could forgive her father after he attempted to kill her mother and how she could find reconciliation with God.
Responding to her question about where God was during those painful experiences, Pope Leo stressed the importance of human responsibility.
“We cannot attribute to God what has been entrusted to our responsibility,” he said. “We cannot imagine that God, from on high, will automatically respond to our needs or miraculously prevent evil from happening.”
According to Vatican News, the Pope said that violence and hatred should prompt society to examine the cultural forces that contribute to such tragedies rather than blaming God.
Turning to the challenge of forgiveness, Pope Leo described it as a process that often unfolds slowly over time.
“We must learn to view forgiveness – that powerful remedy for evil that heals our inner wounds – as part of a process and a journey,” he said.
The Pope acknowledged that deep wounds cannot always be healed quickly. Instead, he encouraged those carrying painful memories to take small steps toward forgiveness while asking God to heal the wounded places within their hearts.
“We move forward in small steps toward forgiveness,” he said. “Reconciliation with the past is gradual.”
He also noted that forgiveness does not always require restoring a damaged relationship, particularly in situations involving abuse or violence.
Following the dialogue, Pope Leo delivered a homily centered on Nicodemus, the Pharisee who sought out Jesus at night. The Pope described every human being as a traveler searching for truth, meaning, and lasting love.
“We are beggars for love; we are truly hungry and thirsty,” he said. “We seek a deeper meaning that will sustain us, inspire us, and help us understand the mystery of our lives.”
Reflecting on moments of darkness, uncertainty, and doubt, Pope Leo encouraged the faithful not to view these experiences as failures but as opportunities for spiritual renewal.
According to Vatican News, he said that the nighttime encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus reveals how God often works through periods of uncertainty to bring about new life.
“Nicodemus teaches us that these nights – which accompany our lives, our journey of faith, and the history in which we live – are a time of blessing, a place for rebirth, a womb that always gives birth to new life,” the Pope said.
Concluding his message, Pope Leo urged Catholics to continue seeking God with confidence, trusting that Christ leads His people from darkness into light.
“God does not want anything to be lost,” he said. “Even now he desires to give us eternal life and lead us to a happiness that has no end.”
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