They wave the flags around the world on the leakage of Tor Vergata who fills up with the passing of the hours. From above, the glance is impressive and only from above we understand the human tide that happily invaded Rome these days and which is now convened on the university campus of Tor Vergata: colors, flags that wave, noise of songs and dances, the hydrants of the Civil Protection that occasionally pass through the sectors to refresh the boys. Someone woke up at 4 in the morning to be here before 9 when they opened the gates.
“Those who first arrive, first stays,” say two boys who arrived from Brazil and in the queue to collect the box with the dinner on Saturday evening and breakfast and Sunday lunch. Many slogans of the boys who mark the name of the Pope even if they know him still little. There are also many American flags waved in the esplanade. But, from the stage where the pre-wake show is being held, Pope Francis, Benedict XIV and John Paul II are also remembered who, twenty-five years ago, celebrated the GMG of the great Jubilee of 2000. Angela, from Bari, was here even then, as a pilgrim, and now as an escort of a group of boys: “A great emotion, I remember the emotion for the Pope’s words when he told us that we would not be resigned to a world of wars, hatred and violence and that he saw the morning sentries in us”.
The hatred that today grips, in a bloody way, the Middle East, Sowing death in the Holy Land, the land of Jesus, in Gaza, where children die of hunger and hardship. Riccardo Peretti, from Padua, has hoisted the flag of Palestine. When we ask him why he tells that his grandmother is Palestinian, even if he has lived in Italy for twenty years, but he does not forget what is happening in his land: “He has three brothers who live in the West Bank and every day they arrive dramatic stories”, he says, “I put the flag because this meeting of young people from all over the world is an important moment to raise awareness of my peers on that is happening there. I hope the Palestine state will be recognized as the Holy See also asked. ” In 2000 the internet was at the dawn, social media did not exist.
Today the “story” of the GMG is (almost) everything on social media, between Reel, posts and stories on Instagram and Tiktok, the social networks of the very young, but not only them. Pablo belongs to the fraternity “Living from God” on digital communicators: «I lived two GMG, this is the first jubilee of young people. I was struck by the climate of peace and above all the joy of screaming this peace in the world. It is crazy as God unites us all, beyond the different languages, of the origin, of cultures ». Sofia, from Brescia, says that “the key word of this Jubilee is enthusiasm”, while for Francesco it is “community” Because, he explains, “faith unites all of us and above all on these occasions makes us understand that we are not alone and that everyone’s questions are often the questions of many, if not everyone”. Carlotta and Emma, from Palermo, speak instead of “rebirth of our faith, starting with relationships”.
Near the stage there is a group of south -ocation boys excited to be able to host the next World Youth Day of 2027 to Seoul. Next to them is Kevin Juanacio with about thirty Peruvian boys who come from Chiclayo, the diocese where Bishop Pope Prevost was.
“For us it is a great joy to be here and be able to embrace it, we hope will soon come to visit us,” they say by shaking the flags of their country. The esplanade is a mosaic of colors and faces but the geography of the flags allows you to trace an atlas of the suffering of the world: The boys of the Middle East, a small group, with the flags of Syria and Lebanon.
«One of the objectives that we carry in the heart in these days is peace, peace for us, for the countries that are on the border, such as Gaza, the Holy Land, Sudan, Libya. We bring them to our heart and pray for them to reign peace and end up the war as mentioned by the Pope many times, “says Father Antoine Alan, Egyptian, who has also brought to Rome a group of refugees, who are among the two hundred young people who accompany Pope Leo who descends from his puck, before the waking, and brings the cross of the Jubilee to the stage. Friendship: it is the other key word between young people who, beyond their origin, including Africa and the distant Oceania, shared a lot this week.
Socials are the stage of this Jubilee e Pope Leo He knows that faith also passes through these tools: “Internet and the media have become an extraordinary opportunity for dialogue, encounter and exchange between people, as well as access to information and knowledge”, says in the dialogue with the children and citing Pope Bergoglio, “these tools are ambiguous when they are dominated by commercial logic and interests that break our relationships in a thousand intermittent”.
Among the digital missionaries and Catholic influencers mixed between the crowd there are also Nicola Camporionondostudent of theology of the province of Vicenza, over 13 thousand followers on Instagram and 160 thousand on Tiktok says that “these events help to rediscover and live the inner faith that is often put aside in everyday life”. Echoes him Michael Mattaruzzo, of Bassano del Grappa, also a digital missionary: «Faith can also be lived by having fun as we are doing these days. Socials are a tool to talk about faith to everyone ».
