New social media and internet connections can be tools that “are misleading when they are controlled by commercialism and interests that fragment our relationships,” according to Pope Leo XIV.
The pontiff was speaking Saturday evening in the Tor Vergata field in Rome for a crowd of over one million young people in the city for the 2025 Jubilee.
He noted Pope Francis said the internet and social media have become “an extraordinary opportunity for dialogue, encounter and exchange between persons, as well as access to information and knowledge,” but the late pontiff also said that sometimes “the whole apparatus of communications, advertising and social networking can be used to lull us, to make us addicted to consumerism.”
Leo told the young people that this was when 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,” he said.
He was answering a question from one young person saying social media often makes people think they have lots of friends and are creating close relationships, “but at the same time we increasingly experience different forms of loneliness.”
The young person noted they are they are close and connected to so many people, yet these are not true and lasting relationships, but ones that are “rather fleeting and often illusory.”
Leo said the one who loves God in his friend, truly loves his friend.
“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,” the pope said.
He noted Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati – the Italian young person who will be canonized next month – said to live without faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for truth, “is not living, but existing.”
“It is when our relationships reflect this intense bond with Jesus that they really become sincere, generous and true,” Leo said.
Another young person asked the pontiff, “where do we find the courage to choose?”
“The courage to choose comes from love, which God shows us in Christ,” the pope said.
“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,” Leo added.
The pontiff was also asked how young people can truly encounter Jesus Christ in their lives “and be sure of his presence even in the midst of trials and uncertainties?”
Leo said 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,” the pontiff said.
Leo also took the occasion to offer prayers for Pascale Rafic, the 18-year-old Egyptian girl who died between on the night between Friday and Saturday of cardiac arrest in the southern suburbs of Rome while attending the Jubilee, as well as a young women named María from Spain, who also died.
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“Both chose to come to Rome for the Jubilee of Youth, and both have passed away in these days. Let us together pray for them; let us also pray for their families, friends and communities. May the Risen Jesus receive them into the peace and joy of his Kingdom,” the pope said.
“And I would also like to ask for your prayers for another friend, a young Spanish man, Ignacio Gonzalvez, who was admitted to the “Bambino Gesù” hospital. Let us pray for him and for his health,” he added.
After this dialogue, the pope prayed before the Eucharist with the pilgrims, before giving them his apostolic blessing.
Follow Charles Collins on X: @CharlesinRome
