Pope Leo XIV has surprised tens of thousands of young Catholics by showing up unexpectedly at a Holy Year welcome ceremony

The Vatican is welcoming more than a thousand social media influencers to Rome this week for an event intended to shape a new generation of Catholic missionaries.

Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday received a rock star's welcome at the Vatican's festival of Catholic influencers — priests, nuns and ordinary faithful who use their social media presence to preach and teach the faith — as he urged them to ensure that human relations don’t suffer with the spread of digital ecosystems and artificial intelligence.