Palestinian young people meet with Pope

January 03, 2026

L’Osservatore Romano reported that “about 30” Palestinian young people, most of them Catholics and university students, met with Pope Leo XIV at his December 31 general audience in St. Peter’s Square (CWN coverage).

Father Massimo Nevola, SJ, spiritual assistant of the Christian Life Community in Italy, organized their jubilee pilgrimage to Rome. He told the Vatican newspaper that “it is the first time they have left the West Bank, and they are here today, accompanied by two parish priests, the Franciscan Johnny Jallouf and Father Elias Tabban, and by André Haddad, a layman who works in the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, to confide their hopes to Leo XIV.”

“In the parish communities they attend,” said Father Jallouf, “these young people felt welcomed, and therefore convinced their families to stay and not leave their homes, as unfortunately some of their acquaintances have done, emigrating elsewhere.” Haddad described the young people as a “light that remains lit, a message of hope for the Christian minority.”

Italian President Sergio Mattarella received the young people at the Quirinale Palace on December 29.

 

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Further information:

• Il volto giovane della speranza in Terra Santa (L'Osservatore Romano, 1/2/26)