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Hun­dreds of thou­sands of young Catholics poured in­to a vast field on Rome’s out­skirts Sat­ur­day for the week­end high­light of the Vat­i­can’s 2025 Holy Year: an evening vig­il, out­door slum­ber par­ty and morn­ing Mass cel­e­brat­ed by Pope Leo XIV that marks his first big en­counter with the next gen­er­a­tion of Catholics.

Mist­ing trucks and wa­ter can­nons spritzed the young peo­ple to try to keep them cool, as tem­per­a­tures neared 30C (85F) with hours to go be­fore Leo ar­rived for the vig­il. But the mood was fes­tive, with young peo­ple danc­ing to a line­up of a dozen dif­fer­ent bands or ly­ing on their tarps where they had set up camp for the night.

“It is some­thing spir­i­tu­al, that you can ex­pe­ri­ence on­ly every 25 years,” said Fran­cis­co Michel, a pil­grim from Mex­i­co. “As a young per­son, hav­ing the chance to live this met­ing with the pope I feel it is a spir­i­tu­al growth.”