Pope Leo XIV has urged the young people of West Africa not to give in to despair or waste their youth on “fictitious pleasures and superficiality,” and has warned them that the constant consumption of content through mobile phones can ultimately leave “the mind tired and the heart empty.”
The Pontiff delivered this message on Tuesday, September 8, in a video address to participants in the first West African Youth Day, being held from September 7 to 12 in Accra, Ghana. In the face of wars, conflicts, insecurity, and uncertainty affecting various countries in the region, Leo XIV assured the young people that they are not a “sacrificed youth” and called on them to become “builders of bridges between peoples, cultures, and religions.”
Below is the full text of Pope Leo XIV’s video message:
Dear young people, peace be with you!
I am happy to join you on this joyful occasion of the first West African Youth Day. I congratulate you on this beautiful initiative of the Episcopal Conferences of your countries, which have placed young people at the center of their pastoral priorities. I am convinced that these intense moments spent together will help you grow in faith and become ever more deeply enriched with values such as encounter and openness to others.
In a time when so many crises seem to darken your horizon, I wish to encourage you to keep moving forward without losing hope. I know how much doubt, uncertainty, and sometimes insecurity can weigh on your shoulders, and how they can disrupt your plans for the future.
Yet you are not a sacrificed youth, as many may think. In the Church–Family of God, you are God’s today, the Church’s today! As Pope Benedict XVI said, “You are rich in qualities, energies, dreams, hopes: resources you possess in abundance! Your very age constitutes a great wealth not only for you, but also for others, for the Church, and for the world” (Message for the XXV World Youth Day, February 22, 2010).
One of the challenges you face is walking together to help bring about positive change in your societies. Walking together means ensuring that no one is marginalized, isolated, excluded, or rejected. Be builders of bridges between peoples, cultures, and religions. We must strive to live as Jesus, our Master and Lord, lived, who excluded no one from his path. He recognized the presence of God in those living on the margins of society, even in those who did not belong to his people.
Dear young people, I count on you and trust in you; the Church trusts in you. With your words and your actions, give a strong message to our world torn by wars and conflicts of every kind. Be witnesses of love, justice, and peace. Do not sacrifice your precious youth on the altar of fictitious pleasures and superficiality.
Indeed, “our deepest questions find neither hearing nor answer in the endless scrolling of our mobile phones, which captures our attention while leaving our mind tired and our heart empty. They will not take us far if we keep them locked within ourselves or within circles that are too narrow. The fulfillment of our authentic desires always requires going beyond ourselves” (Message for the XL World Youth Day, October 7, 2025).
I entrust you to the Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, thinking especially of those in your countries who at times face complex crises. May she intercede with her Son, Jesus Christ, for the integral human development of your beloved nations. Upon you, upon the clergy, and upon all who work with young people, I invoke abundant divine graces.
And now I wholeheartedly impart the Blessing:
May the Lord keep you always in his love.
The Lord be with you. May God almighty bless you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.