EDITORIAL: They came by the million — not for a concert or protest, but to adore Christ and hear the Pope’s call to greatness. The next generation of Catholic witnesses is already here.

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Something spectacular happened in Rome last weekend, yet it failed to attract the widespread coverage it deserved from most secular media outlets.

In a stunning witness of faith, a crowd of 1 million young people gathered on Saturday evening at the campus of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, in advance of the closing Mass Pope Leo XIV celebrated there on Sunday morning for the July 28-Aug. 3 Jubilee of Youth.

And they didn’t just assemble to wait passively for the concluding papal Mass. The massive crowd expended its youthful energies throughout an all-night prayer vigil, during which many participants sang together spontaneously while others silently worshipped Jesus in the Eucharist.

So much for all the media reports claiming Christianity in general — and Catholicism in particular — is in a fatal decline globally.

If 1 million young people showed up with this much fervor to attend almost anything else, the news media in Western countries would herald it as an unmistakable sign that something significant and unexpected is underway. Unsurprisingly, given the irreligious bent of most news outlets, that didn’t happen for the most part.

But something significant is indeed underway in America and elsewhere, in terms of a resurgence of Christian belief among the rising generation. After three decades of sharp decline in the late 1900s, the percentage of U.S. Christians has stabilized over the course of the new millennium that began in 2000.

And according to an analysis by political scientist Ryan Burge, who specializes in examining religious trends, members of the Gen Z demographic — young people born between 1997 and 2012 — are attending church services at a higher rate than are members of the preceding baby boomer, Gen X and millennial generations. Similar trends are also visible in other countries, including the U.K. and France.

It would be wrong to overstate these trends, as evidence of a widespread religious revival in the contemporary West. That’s not happening, at least not yet. Secularism remains pervasive in the more economically developed areas of the world and is deeply entrenched in public institutions there.

But as witnessed by the Jubilee of Youth crowd, the love of Jesus — and the transcendent hope this love generates — remains alive and well among a vast multitude of young people across the entire world.

The Jubilee of Youth was a central component of this year’s ongoing Jubilee of Hope. And it served as a powerful reminder that the only enduring hope in this life — for young and old alike — derives from a committed faith in a loving God.

Young though they are, the members of Gen Z have experienced this reality collectively. They are the first generation to grow up in the era of social media, with the manifold insecurities this digital phenomenon has activated among so many of today’s youth. This generational angst was exacerbated profoundly by the COVID pandemic’s extended lockdowns, which terrorized many young minds and disrupted their social relationships at the very moment they were coming to full maturity.

On Saturday evening, after personally carrying the Jubilee of Hope’s pilgrim cross onto a stage for prayers and Eucharistic adoration, Pope Leo reminded the million-strong crowd of Jubilee of Youth participants about where they can always find hope, no matter what their personal circumstances.

“Adore Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, the source of eternal life,” he advised. “Study, work and love according to the example of Jesus, the good Teacher who always walks beside us.”

He reinforced this message at the following morning’s Mass, proclaiming “Jesus is our hope.”  Added the Holy Father, “It is he, as St. John Paul II said, ‘who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives.’”

Leo also cited Blessed Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati — who will be canonized jointly next month as another feature of this year’s Jubilee of Hope — as examples of heroic youthful Catholics who sought to improve the world through their witnesses of love, prayer and courage.

For young American Catholics in attendance, it was particularly inspiring to receive guidance from their new native-born Pope.

“This is a Pope who knows the youth,” 29-year-old Clare Fletcher, who hails from Omaha, Nebraska, told Catholic News Agency. “His response was savvy, beautiful and worth remembering, not to mention worth praying with for some time.”

At the conclusion of his remarks, Pope Leo commissioned faithful young people to continue to serve as witnesses of hope when they gather again at their next great Catholic gathering, at the 2027 World Youth Day in Seoul, South Korea. “After this Jubilee, the ‘Pilgrimage of Hope’ of young people continues and will take us to Asia,” he said.

“Pilgrims of Hope”: That’s a mission of profound service to the Church and to the world that Catholic youth will continue to provide going forward.

This article was originally published by NCRegister.