Pope Leo XIV resumed on the night of November 10, during the prayer vigil with young people held near the Monument of the Spaniards in Buenos Aires, the “all, all, all” that Francis popularized at the 2023 World Youth Day in Lisbon. The Pope, on his first trip to Argentina, did not merely repeat the slogan: he turned it into a three-part journey, “all toward Christ, all with Christ, all like Christ,” according to the text of his address published by Vatican News.
A place in the Church for those who are far away
In the first part, dedicated to those walking “toward Christ,” the Pontiff addressed those who have drifted away from the Church, those who have been wounded, and those who are just beginning to seek God. To all of them he assured: “There is a place for you in the Church! With your questions, your wounds, and your story.” Along the same lines, he affirmed that “no one has fallen so low that Christ cannot lift him up.”
The second section, “with Christ,” was built around the biblical episode of the three young men thrown into the furnace of Babylon for refusing to bow before the statue, in which a fourth figure appears in the midst of the fire. Leo XIV presented it as a sign that God does not abandon those who suffer for their faith and that Christ offers a life that not even death can take away.
To serve “like Christ” and not bow before idols
The third dimension, “like Christ,” was devoted to service. The Pope recalled the washing of the feet, with the phrase “The Lord of all became the servant of all!”, and quoted the words of the Gospel of John: “Love one another as I have loved you.” He urged the young people to aspire to holiness and to approach the sacrament of Reconciliation.
Before that call, Leo XIV had warned against today’s idols: success at any cost, money, appearance, popularity, and unbridled pleasure, which, he said, can lead to lying, betraying, humiliating, or enslaving. “Do not bow before what cannot give you life!” he exclaimed, and urged them not to let anything or anyone rob them of their freedom.
The vigil took place in the same location where the Pope had presided the previous day over the Buenos Aires Mass. At its conclusion, he blessed a cross that will travel through the communities, entrusted the young people to Our Lady of Luján, and sent them off with a missionary mandate: “Go and proclaim!” On the Pontiff’s arrival in the country, InfoVaticana reported here.
The reference to Francis, the Argentine pontiff who launched the slogan in Lisbon, takes place in his native country and before a multitude of young people. Leo XIV, however, uses it with his own emphasis: the openness to “all” is explicitly linked to a goal, which is Christ, and to a concrete conversion of life, that of living like Him.