The three questions young people asked Pope Leo XIV -- and his answers

Question 1 -- Friendship: Holy Father, we are children of our time. We live in a culture that shapes us without our realizing it; it is a culture marked by technology, especially by social media. We often get excited about having lots of friends and creating close relationships, but at the same time we increasingly experience different forms of loneliness. We are close and connected to so many people, yet they are not true and lasting relationships, but rather fleeting and often illusory. Holy Father, my question is: how can we find true friendship and genuine love that will lead us to true hope? How can faith help us build our future?

Holy Father: Dear young people, relationships with others are essential for each of us, starting with the fact that all men and women in the world are born as someone’s children. Our life begins with a bond, and it is through relationships that we grow. In this process, culture plays a fundamental role: it is like the lens through which we understand ourselves and interpret the world. Just like a dictionary, every culture contains both words that are noble and words that are vulgar, values and also errors that we must learn to recognize. By passionately searching for the truth, we do not merely receive a culture, but also transform it through the choices we make. Truth, in fact, is a bond that connects words to things and names to faces. Lies, on the other hand, divide these elements and lead to confusion and misunderstanding.

Among the many cultural connections that characterize our lives, internet and social media have become “an extraordinary opportunity for dialogue, encounter and exchange between persons, as well as access to information and knowledge” (FRANCIS, Christus Vivit, 87). However, these tools are misleading when they are controlled by commercialism and interests that fragment our relationships. In this regard, Pope Francis recalled that sometimes “the whole apparatus of communications, advertising and social networking can be used to lull us, to make us addicted to consumerism” (Christus Vivit, 105). It is then that our relationships become confused, restless or unstable. When a tool controls someone, that person becomes a tool: a commodity on the market and, in turn, a piece of merchandise. Only genuine relationships and stable connections can build good lives.

Dear young people, every person naturally desires a good life, just as lungs long for air, but how difficult it is to find it! Centuries ago, Saint Augustine understood the deepest desire of our hearts, even without the technological developments of today. He too had a restless youth, but he did not settle for less, he did not silence the cry of his heart. He sought the truth that does not disappoint and the beauty that does not fade. How did he find it? How did he find true friendship and a love capable of giving hope? By finding the one who was already looking for him, Jesus Christ. How did he build his future? By following the one who had always been his friend. In his own words, friendship is nowhere faithful but in Christ, in whom alone it can be eternal and happy (cf. Against Two Letters of the Pelagians I, I, 1). The one who loves God in his friend, truly loves his friend (cf. Sermon 336). Friendship with Christ, which forms the basis of faith, is not just one aid among many others for building the future; it is our guiding star. According to Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, to live without faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for truth, is not living, but existing (cf. Letters, 27 February 1925). It is when our relationships reflect this intense bond with Jesus that they really become sincere, generous and true.

Question 2 -- The Courage to Choose: Holy Father, our years are marked by important decisions as we are faced with choices that will shape our future. However, due to the climate of uncertainty surrounding us, we are tempted to procrastinate, and we are paralyzed by the fear of an uncertain future. We know that choosing means giving something else up and this becomes an obstacle for us. Despite everything, we sense that hope points to achievable goals, even if they are marked by the precariousness of the present moment. Holy Father, we ask you: where do we find the courage to choose? How can we be courageous and live the adventure of true freedom, making radical and meaningful choices?

Holy Father: To choose is a fundamental human act. Looking at it closely, we realize that it is not just a matter of choosing something, but of choosing someone. When we make a choice, in the strict sense, we decide who we want to become. The most important choice is the decision about the direction of our life: What kind of man do you want to be? What kind of woman do you want to be? Dear young people, we learn to choose through the trials of life, but above all by remembering that we have been chosen. This reality must be explored and fostered. We received life as a gift, without choosing it! Our existence did not originate from our decision, but from a love that wanted us. Throughout our lives, those who help us recognize and renew this grace through our choices prove themselves to be our true friends.

Dear young people, you said it well: “choosing means giving something else up and this
becomes an obstacle for us.” To be free, we need to start from a stable foundation, from the rock that supports our steps. This rock is a love that precedes us, surprises us and is infinitely greater than us: the love of God. Therefore, before God, choice becomes a judgment that takes nothing away, but always leads to the greatest good.

The courage to choose comes from love, which God shows us in Christ. It is he who loved us with his whole self, saving the world and thus showing us that self-giving is the way to our fulfillment. For this reason, the encounter with Jesus corresponds to the deepest longings of our hearts, because he is God’s love made man.

Twenty-five years ago, right here where we are now, Saint John Paul II spoke on this subject, saying: “It is Jesus in fact that you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle” (Prayer Vigil on the 15th World Youth Day, 19 August 2000). Fear then gives way to hope, because we are certain that God brings to completion what he begins. We recognize his faithfulness in the words of those who truly love, because they have been truly loved. “You are my life, Lord”: this is what a priest and a consecrated sister say full of joy and in complete freedom. “I take you to be my wife and I take you to be my husband”: this is the phrase that transforms the love of a man and a woman into an efficacious sign of God’s love. These are radical and meaningful choices: Matrimony, Holy Orders, and Consecrated Life. They express the free and liberating gift of self that makes us truly happy. These choices give meaning to our lives, transforming them into the image of the perfect love that created them and redeemed them from all evil.

Question 3 -- The Call to do Good: Holy Father, we are drawn to the interior life even if at first glance we are judged as a superficial and thoughtless generation. Deep within ourselves, we feel drawn to the beautiful and the good as sources of truth. The value of silence, as in this Vigil, fascinates us, even if at times it instills fear because of a sense of emptiness. Holy Father, I would like to ask you: how can we truly encounter the Risen Lord in our lives and be sure of his presence even in the midst of trials and uncertainties?

Holy Father: To launch this Jubilee Year, Pope Francis released a document called Spes non confundit, which means “hope does not disappoint”. In that document, he wrote: “In the heart of each person, hope dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come” (Spes non confundit, 1). In the Bible, the word “heart” usually refers to a person’s innermost being, which includes our conscience. Our understanding of what is good, then, reflects how our conscience has been shaped by the people in our lives; those who were kind to us, who listened to us with love and who helped us. Those people helped to raise you in goodness and, therefore, to form your conscience to seek the good in your daily choices.

Dear young people, Jesus is the friend who always accompanies us in the formation of our conscience. If you truly want to encounter the Risen Lord, then listen to his word, which is the Gospel of salvation. Reflect on your way of living, and seek justice in order to build a more humane world. Serve the poor, and so bear witness to the good that we would always like to receive from our neighbours. Adore Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, the source of eternal life. Study, work and love according to the example of Jesus, the good Teacher who always walks beside us.

As we seek what is good, let us ask him at every step: stay with us, Lord (cf. Lk 24:29). Stay with us, because without you we cannot do the good we desire. You want what is good for us; you are the supreme good. Those who encounter you also want others to encounter you, because your word is a light brighter than any star, illuminating even the darkest night. Pope Benedict XVI liked to say that those who believe are never alone. In other words, we encounter Christ in the Church, that is, in the communion of those who sincerely seek him. The Lord himself gathers us together to form a community of believers who support one another. How much the world needs missionaries of the Gospel who are witnesses of justice and peace! How much the future needs men and women who are witnesses of hope! Dear young people, this is the task that the Risen Lord entrusts to each one of us! Saint Augustine wrote: “You stir us to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you... Lord, I would seek you... and calling upon you is an act of believing in you” (Confessions, I, 1). Following those words of Augustine, and in response to your questions, I would like to invite each of you, dear young people, to say to the Lord: “Thank you, Jesus, for calling me. My desire is to remain as one of your friends, so that, embracing you, I may also be a companion on the journey for anyone I meet. Grant, O Lord, that those who meet me may encounter you, even through my limitations and frailties.” Through praying these words, our dialogue will continue each time we look at the crucified Lord, for our hearts will be united in him. Finally, my prayer for you is that you may persevere in faith, with joy and courage! Thank you.