Addressing a prayer vigil in Madrid, Spain on Saturday 6 June, Pope Leo encouraged young people to understand society and to transform it as witnesses of the Gospel.
“Throughout the centuries of Church history, we Christians have lived in all types of societies, navigating the changes in the cultures we have shared and helped to shape,” Pope Leo continued.
He continued:
There is an ancient text called the Letter to Diognetus, which offers us a beautiful insight on this point: “Christians are to the world what the soul is to the body” (VI).
This is our way of life: Jesus’ disciples are always people of their time, but never prisoners of a passing era. We are free in Christ! His love has set us free. Thanks to this love, we are always free from all coercion and deception. We are free from passing fads, because we are disciples of the truth; we are open to the future, because we know that it is not death that awaits us. On the contrary, the meaning of history comes to its fulfilment in the eternal communion of life that God prepares for us all.
From this perspective, you young people are especially called to lead society in a new direction, playing a key role in bringing about change through your daily relationships — what you live at home, at university, and at work. Seeing you, dear young people, filled with this enthusiasm that comes from faith, I have high hopes for your ability to bear witness to Christ in the world — including the realm of digital media — and to communicate the values and beauty of the Gospel (cf. Christus Vivit, 105; Address to Catholic Digital Missionaries and Influencers, 29 July 2025).
I therefore invite all of you to be, together, the salt of the earth and the light of the world (cf. Mt 5:13). For this to happen, you must first understand today’s society and live with wisdom, so as to transform it as witnesses of the Gospel. A young Christian, in fact, is a source of light both in joy and in trial, giving flavor to reality as a person who enjoys life from within, without looking to wealth, pleasure or power as a source of flavor. Such is our freedom, which has its source in faith. It is capable of bringing light and flavor to every society, to every human experience. On the other hand, when life loses its flavor, it is as if it were stolen from us: we no longer feel it as our own. In the face of the emptiness of indifference and compliance, before the violence of war and lies, you must be the sparks of a new humanity.
I want to entrust all of you the mission to be truly human. Yes, be human: men and women of flesh and blood! Not mere appearances, but trustworthy faces. People who seek justice because they hunger for it, as for their daily bread. People who desire an honest and upright life, because they gladly do to others what they would like others to do to them. Be human as Christ is human, the perfect man, the risen One who shares history with us in every age. In cultivating this mission, look to the Apostles, to the first Christians, who lived in a pagan world. Following their example, be missionaries of the Gospel amid the material and spiritual poverty of our time, knowing full well that our faith is a way of life that is lived out in charity (cf. Gal 5:6). This, dear young people, is the virtue that will change history the most. You can change history! Do it with love!
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Address to Prayer Vigil with Young People (Vatican.va)