Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday received a rock star's welcome at the Vatican's festival of Catholic influencers — priests, nuns and ordinary faithful who use their social media presence to preach and teach the faith — as he urged them to ensure that human relations don’t suffer with the spread of digital ecosystems and artificial intelligence.

Pope Leo XIV urged hundreds of thousands of young people on Saturday to have the courage to make radical choices to do good, as he presided over his first big encounter with the next generation of Catholics during the highlight of the Vatican’s 2025 Holy Year.

In his closing blessing for the Jubilee of Youth, Leo remembered the young people of Gaza and Ukraine and other countries at war who could not join their celebration.