Pope Leo XIV urged hundreds of thousands of young people on Saturday to have the courage to make radical choices to do good, as he presided over his first big encounter with the next generation of Catholics during the highlight of the Vatican’s 2025 Holy Year.

In his closing blessing for the Jubilee of Youth, Leo remembered the young people of Gaza and Ukraine and other countries at war who could not join their celebration.

Pope Leo celebrated the largest event yet of his nearly three-month tenure on Sunday, encouraging a crowd of more than a million Catholic young people gathered in a field on the outskirts of Rome to spread their faith.