A message for times of challenge and hope

In a global context marked by social crises, conflicts, inequality, and the search for meaning, the Pope addresses young people on the occasion of the 40th World Youth Day (23 November 2025)  with the message entitled “You too are my witnesses”.

This message, published on October 7, 2025, conveys a clear and demanding invitation: may every young person discover that they are called to bear witness with their lives to the transforming presence of Christ in the world.

1. Being witnesses in the midst of the world

The Pope emphasizes that witnesses are not mere spectators of the Gospel, but active people who “give an account of their faith” through their testimony. (Vatican [1]) In a society experiencing a crisis of meaning, social fragmentation, secularization, and deep wounds, the figure of the young believer as a witness becomes especially necessary.

The exhortation is not to an abstract or private faith, but a faith that is embodied in everyday life: in justice, solidarity, acceptance, mercy, and in the concrete decisions that each young person must face in their personal, family, and social environments.

2. Testimony demands coherence

The papal document insists that authentic witness requires coherence between what is professed and what is lived. Words are not enough; what is needed is a life transformed by the Gospel. It also recognizes that young people face multiple tensions: the dominant culture, opposing ideologies, relativism, individualism, and the pressure of the virtual.

To respond to these difficulties, the Pope invites us to cultivate a genuine spiritual life: prayer, listening to the Word, the sacraments, and communion with the Church. These elements strengthen our witness in the face of adversity.

3. The Church as a missionary community

The message doesn’t position the witness of young people as something isolated, but rather as part of the Church’s mission. Every young person has a role to play in a Church that journeys, listens, and accompanies.

The notion of community is emphasized: one cannot be a witness without being in communion with other believers, without sharing the journey of faith, without accompaniment. The evangelizing mission is best carried out in community, where individual witness is nourished by mutual support.

4. Specific challenges for young people

The Pope does not shy away from the real obstacles: apathy, indifference, lack of meaning, consumer culture, existential loneliness, social injustice, moral relativism. He calls us to confront these realities with courage, creativity, and a faith that does not settle for comfort.

It also emphasizes the importance of making concrete commitments: caring for the environment, promoting justice, welcoming migrants, and fighting inequality. The witness of young people, when committed to these causes, reveals the transformative power of the Gospel.

5. Hope as a driving force of testimony

At the heart of the message is Christian hope: a horizon that goes beyond present difficulties. Bearing witness is not an isolated heroic act, but a confident commitment to the promise of the risen Christ.

Hope sustains consistency when adversity seems to defeat. Therefore, the Pope encourages young people to remain steadfast in this hope, aware that they do not walk alone, but with Christ and the Church.

Pastoral and social importance of the message

This papal message offers a clear incentive for youth ministry and those responsible for evangelization: to offer young people not a superficial experience of Christianity, but a profound experience of gift and mission.

Socially, the call to witness and hope helps counteract the forms of resignation, indifference, and nihilism that affect many young people today. It is an invitation not to renounce our commitment to the common good or to human dignity.

Likewise, by framing the mission within the ecclesial community, it is emphasized that the challenges of faith are not solely individual, but require networks of accompaniment, formation, and co-responsibility.

Full text of the message

Leo XIV

for the  40th World Youth Day

[November 23, 2025]

Dear young people,

“You also are my witnesses” (cf. Acts 1:8).

1. This passage from the Acts of the Apostles expresses in simple words the desire of the risen Jesus, now contemplated in heaven: He counts on his disciples, calls them to be present with him in the world, entrusts them with a mission. The Church celebrates World Youth Day in the context of the Jubilee 2025, reminding us that faith is not reduced to the individual or private: it is a life that is communicated, a proclamation that is shared, a witness that is given.

2. Dear young people, with this message I wish to invite you to courageously embrace your baptismal vocation:  you are witnesses of Christ  in your generation. Not passive witnesses or spectators, but protagonists. Our contemporaries need to see young faces proclaiming the Gospel in word and deed, bringing the light of faith into the darkness of the world.

3. Being authentic witnesses requires training, determination, consistency, and courage. It’s not enough to simply proclaim with one’s mouth: one’s life must reflect what one believes. In a world filled with so many contradictions and crises of meaning, young believers must demonstrate that faith is not escapism but the option that gives foundation, meaning, and hope.

4. The Church accompanies you on this journey: you do not walk alone. In the ecclesial community you will find sustenance, fraternity, formation, and a shared mission. Do not be afraid of difficulties: the mission is not carried out in comfort, but in generosity and risk.

5. In your role as witnesses, embrace the causes of justice, solidarity, the defense of human dignity, and the care of creation. These causes, when lived with faith, become channels of evangelization.

6. Finally, may your life be a sign of Christian hope in a world that so often forgets it. Do not let difficulties discourage you. The risen Jesus walks with you and encourages you to persevere.

With this heart, I accompany you with my blessing and urge you, in every land, every culture, every environment, to say with your lives: “I too am a witness of Christ.”

Leo XIV

(The full text reproduced here corresponds to that published by the Holy See)

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[1]:  https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/es/messages/youth/documents/20251007-messaggio-xl-gmg.html  «Message of the Holy Father Leo XIV for the 40th World Youth Day [23 November 2025] (7 October 2025)»