Young adults sent out as Pilgrims of Hope during the Jubilee Year

The Archdiocesan pilgrimage group meets after Bishop Dell’Oro a Mass at the Basilica of Sts. Boniface and Alesso, a Somascan church, in Rome. HOUSTON — Over 300 people from parishes and ministries throughout the Archdiocese traveled to Rome to attend the Jubilee of Young People, held July 28 to Aug. 3.

One of many Jubilee events organized by the Vatican during the Holy Year as a way for pilgrims to encounter Christ, the Jubilee of Young People attracted more than half a million throughout its week-long series of events.

More than one million from 146 countries attended the Aug. 3 closing Mass with Pope Leo XIV. Among the people attending were from music, ethnic, youth and various ministries of all ages from the Archdiocese.

Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro, CRS, accompanied 70 young adults on a pilgrimage hosted by Angie Pometto, director of the Office of Young Adult and Campus Ministries.

“My presence with them is part of my ministry here as an auxiliary bishop,” Bishop Dell’Oro said. “Being with them, walking with them, laughing with them, looking for a gelato with them.”  

He said one of his highlights was meeting Pope Leo XIV at the Aug. 6 general audience and being the main celebrant for a July 31 daily Mass for the pilgrimage group at the Altar of the Chair of St. Peter inside St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. 

There, Father Tucker Redding, S.J., a pilgrimage chaplain and director of St. Mary at the Rice University Catholic Student Center, and Father Zachary Muldrow of the Archdiocese, along with 20 to 30 priests from English-speaking countries around the world, concelebrated the Mass with Bishop Dell’Oro for the different pilgrim groups. They also concelebrated the July 29 opening Mass in St. Peter’s Square, which formally kicked off the week of activities. 

“I try to challenge them all,” Bishop Dell’Oro said. He also asked each young adult about their next step in life and encouraged them to make their personal religious and interior life an experience with God that touches their hearts to share their faith with others. 

Renzo Forti, a Peruvian parishioner at Holy Rosary Parish in Houston, said he identified with the new pope, who served in Peru for many years, including a decade as bishop of Chiclayo, before working at the Vatican and being elected pope.

He said one of the “biggest, most beautiful” moments for him was a surprise encounter with Pope Leo at the end of the July 29 opening Mass, when the pope stepped out to greet the crowded square. 

He and his brother ran up to get as close as they could to snap photos and greet Pope Leo. “You can feel the holiness, the peace, the joy of over 100,000 people being so joyful and so hopeful to encounter Christ and to see His vicar here with us,” Forti said.  

Daphne Cervantes, a young adult parishioner at Epiphany of the Lord Parish in Katy, carried concerns regarding her career and vocation into the pilgrimage. 

Throughout the week’s events, multiple opportunities allowed Cervantes to get to know different religious sisters and encouraged her to consider discerning religious life.

Cervantes also took to social media to gather family and friends’ prayer requests, taking them with her to the Holy Doors and holy sites in Rome and Assisi.   

Father Muldrow, an Archdiocesan priest now studying canon law at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., joined the young adult group as a chaplain. As a priest, he said he found hope for the future of the young adults who attended the Jubilee pilgrimage and for the future of the Church. 

“I can’t help but reflect upon the opening words, taken from the Letter to the Romans, of the Papal Bull with which Pope Francis inaugurated the Jubilee Year: ‘Hope does not disappoint,’” Father Muldrow said.  

“Our hope, the true and abiding fountain to which we return again and again for sustenance, is Christ Himself and His pledge of eternal life,” he said.

Kendall Young, a parishioner at St. Mary Parish in Frydek, was a young adult pilgrim who had never attended a pilgrimage or traveled outside of the country, and she took the Holy Father’s message of being a missionary pilgrim of hope to heart. 

“As we continue to talk about our experience, people are able to see that message of hope,” Young said. “We are called to be pilgrims and to spread this message.” 

She also said that seeing Pope Leo XIV in person helped her to reflect on the succession of popes all the way back to Jesus. “It shows me that there is hope in the Church."

Sister Elizabeth Marie, O.P., English department chair at Frassati Catholic High School, was part of a group that initially planned to attend the canonization of St. Pier Giorgio Frassati during the Jubilee of Young People before his canonization was set to Sept. 7 with St. Carlo Acutis, due to the death of Pope Francis. 

Sister Elizabeth Marie said that the change allowed their group a more intimate experience during public veneration of the incorrupt body of St. Frassati. “We were able to touch his casket and wave him off as the car departed. We also visited with his niece and other relatives, with whom we’ve been in contact through the years as the high school has grown,” she said. 

“Many of us were able to attend Mass celebrated by Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney in front of his casket, after which Dominican friars solemnly processed with his casket out of the church to take him back to Turin.”  The encounter was a highlight for the high school group named after now-canonized St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, who was a Third Order Dominican.  

Part of the Jubilee of Youth included a gathering of more than 4,000 youth and young adults from the U.S. and other English-speaking countries at the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome on July 30. There, Bishop Dell’Oro joined other bishops in greeting the young people, including addresses by Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester and Bishop Ed Burns of Dallas. Introduced in a solemn procession, the relics of a dozen saints and blesseds, including Blessed Stanley Rother and Sts. Carlo Acutis, Pier Giorgio Frassati, Paul, Kateri Tekakwitha and Elizabeth Ann Seton joined the young people.

The week of events concluded with a two-day event, Aug. 2 to 3, at a large field at the University of Rome’s Tor Vergata campus. The Aug. 2 overnight outdoor vigil included 40 minutes of Eucharistic Adoration with Pope Leo following his arrival by helicopter, entertainment, prayer and worship, testimonies and more. 

Part of the night included a question-and-answer session, during which young adults from around the world asked Pope Leo about friendship, life choices and the call to faith amidst uncertainty. Another special moment came when Pope Leo carried high the Jubilee Cross as he walked with a group of 200 young adult pilgrims.

A World Youth Day tradition, pilgrims often stay up late into the night meeting other young people from around the world, exchanging gifts, souvenirs and prayers. The next morning, on Aug. 3, the pilgrims attended Mass presided by Pope Leo, with Bishop Dell’Oro and other priests from Galveston-Houston concelebrating, joining some 7,000 other priests, 400 bishops and 25 cardinals, according to the Vatican.

“Dear young people, aspire to great things, to holiness, wherever you are,” Pope Leo said in his Aug. 3 homily. “Do not settle for less. Then you will see the light of the Gospel grow every day, within you and around you.”

Father Redding said this was his first time visiting Rome as a priest, which overwhelmed him in a good way. He concelebrated Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica with Bishop Dell’Oro, the closing Jubilee Mass with Pope Leo XIV in a large field at Tor Vergata, and smaller chapels in Rome and Assisi. He also said that the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order that he is a member of, took place during the midst of the Jubilee on July 31.  

“This was also the day that we were able to celebrate Mass at the Chair of St. Peter. That Mass was meaningful on its own, but to be there on the Feast of St. Ignatius was even more powerful for me,” Father Redding said.

The Jesuit priest gave tours for pilgrims of the popular Jesuit churches in Rome, including the Gesu and St. Ignatius. The Gesu is the mother church of the Society of Jesus and the final resting place of St. Ignatius of Loyola, he said. Buried at the Church of St. Ignatius are Jesuits St. Aloysius Gonzaga, St. John Berchmans, and St. Robert Bellarmine. 

“I was so moved to share this day and my spirituality with them,” Father Redding said.

Pometto chaperoned the group and noticed the opportunity of going up the Holy Stairs in Rome resonated for days among the young adults. She also said she witnessed the power of the young adults encountering the cross and its lifechanging impact throughout the week’s variety of events. 

Pometto said she looked forward to reuniting with the 70 young adults later this fall to understand the graces they received during the pilgrimage and to continue accompanying the young adults throughout their journey.