In one week, American Catholics will witness an unprecedented event as Pope Leo XIV will speak in real time from Rome with some 15,000 youths gathered in Indianapolis for the 2025 National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC).
Millions more will watch live on EWTN – the exclusive broadcast partner for the event – via the network’s platforms including its broadcast and YouTube channels, plus streaming and social media platforms.
Archbishop Nelson Pérez led a press conference in Baltimore Nov. 12 with key organizers of the conference during the annual meetings of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in the city this week.
The event titled “Pope Leo Live: A Call to Unity and Peace!” will cap the three-day youth conference Nov. 20-22 drawing Catholic young people ages 14-18 from around the country and the adults who minister to them.
Calling Pope Leo’s digital encounter at the NCYC a “historic moment” and a “powerful opportunity for young people,” Archbishop Pérez said the pontiff “will do something for the young people of our country that has never been done on such a grand scale by any previous pope.”
The archbishop explained that on Friday, Nov. 21 at 10:15 a.m., Pope Leo will begin an encounter of at least 45 minutes with an address to the youths followed by a question-and-answer dialogue with several of the teens present.
At that time they will express to the pope “their concerns, their experiences within their heart; what makes them happy and joyful, but what also challenges their hearts as well,” said Archbishop Pérez.
While the encounter will be witnessed live in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, youths will be gathering in their own communities to view the event, including in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Six archdiocesan Catholic high schools – two in Philadelphia and one in each suburban county – will host what are called “Pope Rallies” to gather all the students together for the 45-minute dialogue with Pope Leo.
With the young people joining from their schools and adults from their homes, millions are expected to witness the Pope’s “call to unity and peace.”
Explaining more details with Archbishop Pérez on the press conference’s panel was Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Holy See’s apostolic nuncio to the U.S.; Archbishop Charles Tompson of Indianapolis and host of the NCYC; Montse Alvarado, head of EWTN News; and Christina Llamas, head of the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, which is presenting the conference.
In her remarks she said the conference and the pope’s presence show that “the Church is listening, not just speaking. This encounter is not a media event, it is (a) moment where one universal Church walks with the young Church in the United States.”
The conference is not only a gathering to encourage young people, but it also points out two challenges.
“Today Catholic youth ministry stands at a crossroads,” Llamas said. “The need for accompaniment has never been greater yet the investment of time and resources doesn’t always reflect that reality. Many young people love the Church but they struggle to find a place where their voices are heard, their gifts are entrusted and their questions are welcomed.”
Despite these challenges and the dilemma of fewer paid youth ministers than in the past and “growing secular pressures,” according to Llamas, she said “there are powerful signs of renewal.”
Youth ministry throughout the Church in the U.S. is evolving from programs to relationships in which young people are becoming “protagonists in their own faith journey,” Llamas said.
She added that teens are “stepping away from the noise of the world to encounter Christ and one another. That choice alone is a sign of hope.”
Archbishop Pérez anticipates that the questions and concerns of young people speaking directly with Pope Leo will echo the thoughts of youths he has encountered in his own ministry as a priest and bishop.
“Young people want a place in the church,” the archbishop said, adding that they believe older generations of Catholics don’t fully welcome them. “They want to be seen, heard and valued. They want to be loved by the Church. We say we love them, and we do. But somehow we need to demonstrate that in a better way.
“You don’t get much better than the pope coming in live to say to them that the Church loves them.”
Cardinal Pierre offered his insight into this generational tension by observing that many older Catholics encountered Jesus Christ through their family and Church structures like parishes and schools. But that experience is often no longer the case with the young.
“Now a lot of young people are encountering Jesus outside the Church,” including through the media, Cardinal Pierre said. “It’s a new world, a new religious experience. Which Church will they come to? Will they be received by the Church to go out and deepen their experience?”
The Church must continue to reach out as Pope Francis taught. “It is not the usual Church experience” for youths, the cardinal said. “We are not just entertaining inside the house. We have to go out (of the house), to reach out.”
Llamas said the vitality of the Church “will depend on whether young people find companions who believe in them as deeply as God does.”
That is why the coming conference and Pope Leo’s live, digital presence is so important.
“If the Holy Father can make time to listen, so can we,” Llamas said. “The encounter involves a Church that listens first, accompanies always and invites every young person to belong, to believe and to be sent forth.”
Share this story