Pope Leo XIV asked Argentine youth gathered in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, November 10, not to bow before the idols of their time, among which he cited money, obsession with appearance, popularity, and pleasures that enslave, “such as pornography and various substances.” He did so during the prayer vigil held at the Monument of the Spaniards, the same place where the day before he had presided over the Mass with families, before a crowd that Vatican News estimated at more than one million people. “Do not kneel before what cannot give you life!” he told them.
The Pope took as his guiding thread the account from the Book of Daniel about three young men, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, who refused to bow before the golden statue the king had ordered erected. That story, he said, is not a thing of the past: “today too idols are raised that demand our worship.” And he listed them: “success at any cost, money, obsession with appearance, popularity, or the unbridled pursuit of pleasure.” He warned that serving them can lead one to lie, betray, or humiliate someone on social media. Others, he added, present themselves offering pleasures that end up enslaving.
In the face of that servitude, Pope Leo XIV proposed to the young people the means that have always existed. “Do not be afraid to approach the sacrament of Reconciliation,” he urged them. “Pray, read the Gospel, draw near to the Eucharist.” There, he said, awaits the One who gave His life for them. And he assured them that no one has fallen so low that Christ cannot lift them up.
The vigil began with a welcome from the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva, and with the testimonies of four young people, according to Vatican News: Agustín Cristian Schinca, who recounted how he overcame an addiction thanks to a community and an encounter with Jesus; Agustina Flores, a teacher and volunteer, who spoke about frustration; Guadalupe Irupe, a candidate for consecrated life who discovered her vocation when she thought it was already too late; and Franco Puglisi, a journalist and catechist. Some of them posed their questions to the Pope.
Pope Leo XIV wanted to make it clear that the door is open to everyone. He recalled the expression popularized by Francis at World Youth Day in Lisbon in 2023, “everyone, everyone, everyone,” and completed it in a Christological key: everyone toward Christ, with Christ, and as Christ. “There is a place for you in the Church!” he said, before reminding the young people that Jesus Christ knows them, loves them, and wants them close to Him. The goal he proposed to them was none other than holiness, also in study and in daily work: “Be saints!”
The gathering ended with a sending forth. “Go and announce!” the Pope asked, blessing a cross destined to travel the country from hand to hand. His visit to Argentina concluded on Wednesday at the Luján shrine, before his departure for Peru.
The speech comes during a trip in which young people have had their own prominence. In Montevideo, Pope Leo XIV asked them not to fear the “forever” of marriage, and in Buenos Aires a group of university students welcomed him with banners calling for the traditional Mass. At the vigil at the Monument of the Spaniards, the Pope directly named pornography and drugs among the idols that enslave today’s youth.
Pope Leo XIV asked a million young people not to kneel before the idols of their time and to return to Confession and the Eucharist.
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