At open-air Church party, many thousands of young Catholics eagerly await pope

Swarms of enthusiastic young Catholics gathered under the hot sun in Rome on Saturday in a festive, open-air celebration to be capped by an evening prayer vigil led by Pope Leo XIV.

The Vatican said it was expecting up to one million young people for the vigil, which, together with a Sunday mass, marks the culmination of the week-long youth pilgrimage — a key event in the Catholic Church’s Jubilee holy year.

By Saturday afternoon, the vast open area on the outskirts of Rome — which at over…