Pope Leo XIV waves at pilgrims from South Korea before the closing Mass of the Jubilee of Youth at the University of Rome Tor Vergata on Aug. 3, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Aug 3, 2025 / 07:35 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday announced that the dates of the next World Youth Day, to be held in Seoul, South Korea, will be Aug. 3–8, 2027.

“After this jubilee, the ‘pilgrimage of hope’ of young people continues and will take us to Asia,” the pontiff said in a message before praying the Angelus at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, 10 miles east of Rome, where he had just celebrated Mass for 1 million participants from 146 countries.

“I renew the invitation that Pope Francis extended in Lisbon two years ago,” he added, referring to World Youth Day in Portugal in 2023.

This new edition of World Youth Day, he said, will mark an important stage in the faith journey of the new generations. The theme will be: “Take courage, I have overcome the world.”

Leo XIV concluded his Angelus address with a powerful missionary call: “You, young pilgrims of hope, will be witnesses of this to the ends of the earth! I look forward to seeing you in Seoul: Let us continue to dream together and to hope together.”

The 2027 World Youth Day will be the first to be held in South Korea and the second in Asia, following the historic gathering of young people in Manila, Philippines, in 1995.

The pontiff defined the Jubilee of Youth, held in Rome from July 28 to Aug. 3, as “an outpouring of grace for the Church and for the whole world!” He also thanked the 1 million pilgrims who attended for their witness and enthusiasm.

In English, the pope recalled the teens and young adults who suffer in “every land bloodied by war” and mentioned in particular the young people of Gaza and Ukraine, whose lives are marked by the violence and uncertainty of war.

Leo XIV also spoke in Spanish, telling those present they are “the sign that a different world is possible.” He concluded in Italian with the affirmation that with Christ, faith is possible: “with his love, with his forgiveness, and with the power of his Spirit.”

Mass at Tor Vergata

The pope could not contain his emotion at his second and final grand meeting with young people on the 237-acre grounds of Tor Vergata, where more than 1 million young pilgrims had spent the night following a prayer vigil and Eucharistic adoration led by Leo on Aug. 2.

A burst of joy swept through the area upon seeing the pontiff descend from the helicopter on the morning of Aug. 3. After an intense night of vigil, marked by a moving moment of silent Eucharistic adoration, Leo XIV told the young people that they are not made for a life that is “taken for granted and static, but for an existence that is constantly renewed through gift of self in love.”

The Jubilee of Youth, part of the Catholic Church’s yearlong Jubilee of Hope in 2025, has served as a bridge between the American pope and young people, with whom he has been able to strengthen a relationship thanks to his ability to speak three languages.

In his homily, Pope Leo invited the pilgrims to open their hearts to God and venture with him “towards eternity.”

Most of the pontiff’s homily was delivered in Italian, with short paragraphs in English and Spanish.

The pope focused on the human desire for fulfillment and asked the young people not to satisfy the thirst of their hearts with “cheap imitations.”

“There is a burning question in our hearts, a need for truth that we cannot ignore, which leads us to ask ourselves: What is true happiness? What is the true meaning of life? What can free us from being trapped in meaninglessness, boredom, and mediocrity?” he said.

Thus, he invited everyone to turn their desire for more into “a step stool, like children who stand on tiptoe, in order to peer through the window of encounter with God. We will then find ourselves before him, who is waiting for us, knocking gently on the window of our soul.”

During the Mass, the pope also addressed the experience of the limits and finiteness of things that happen, saying that these topics should not be taboo or topics “to be avoided.”

“The fragility they speak of is, in fact, part of the marvel of creation,” he emphasized, after quoting from the reading from Ecclesiastes. 

“Think of the image of grass: Is not a field of flowers beautiful? Of course, it is delicate, made up of small, vulnerable stems, prone to drying out, to being bent and broken. Yet at the same time these flowers are immediately replaced by others that sprout up after them, generously nourished and fertilized by the first ones as they decay on the ground,” he said.

He emphasized: “We too, dear friends, are made this way, we are made for this.”

Reflecting on the readings at Mass, the Holy Father made it clear that “buying, hoarding, and consuming are not enough.”

And he added: “We need to lift our eyes, to look upwards, to the ‘things that are above’ (Col 3:2), to realize that everything in the world has meaning only insofar as it serves to unite us to God and to our brothers and sisters in charity, helping us to grow in ‘compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience’ (Col 3:12).”

Evoking St. John Paul II, the founder of World Youth Days, he proclaimed: “Jesus is our hope.”

“It is he, as St. John Paul II said, ‘who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives ... to commit … to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal,’” Leo said.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.