Leo XIV in Rimini: when the Church rediscovered charisma as a method of evangelization

Twenty thousand accreditations sold out in a few hours, a Mass eagerly awaited on the beach of Rimini's port, a papal helicopter that will first land on the rock of San Marino before heading to the Fiera: this is what the return of a pope in the flesh to the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples reveals, forty-four years after John Paul II. It is not a mere protocol stop slipped into a summer schedule. It is a theological choice, that of reconnecting with a movement born in Italy's Years of Lead, at a time when the Church feared losing its youth, and which took the opposite approach to that fear: that of beauty as a gateway to faith.

An American pope at the heart of an Italian charisma

The visit of August 22nd, between San Marino and Rimini

The program is now public in its entirety: departure from the Vatican heliport at 8:00 a.m., a morning dedicated to the Republic of San Marino where the Pope will preside over a time of Eucharistic adoration in the basilica dedicated to the saintly founder, followed by arrival at 2:45 p.m. at the Rimini Fairgrounds heliport. Leo XIV will tour the exhibition pavilions, greet the children of the Villaggio Ragazzi, and visit several thematic exhibitions privately, before addressing the audience at 4:00 p.m. in the Grand Auditorium, specially prepared for ten thousand people. The day will continue at Rimini Cathedral, where he will meet with the sick, the disabled, and the poor accompanied by Caritas, before a concelebration of Mass at the port, on the beach, at 6:30 p.m. This choice to conclude the visit with an open-air mass, facing the sea, is not insignificant: it places the pastoral gesture in the tradition of the great popular gatherings that Christianity has known how to organize since the crowds that followed Christ even "in deserted places" according to the expression of Saint Mark, when "people were running from all the towns and arriving before them" (Mk 6, 33).

The enthusiasm generated by this visit extends far beyond the usual circles of the founding movement. The twenty thousand accreditations available for access to the Fiera were snapped up in just a few hours, forcing organizers to direct latecomers to the beach mass, which remains accessible with a pass. The 47th edition of the Meeting, taking place from August 20 to 26, will also welcome other public figures such as Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, as well as Italian and European political leaders, demonstrating that this event has long since transcended its religious affiliation to become a recognized cultural landmark beyond the Church.

What this return means, forty-four years after John Paul II

The last pope to personally set foot on the grounds of the Rimini Fair was John Paul II, in 1982, for the closing of the third edition of this same Meeting. In his speech at the time, the Polish pope already hailed it as "an important manifestation of a form of renewal in the Italian Catholic world," driven by thousands of young people from all over Italy and abroad. Four decades later, it is no longer a nascent renewal that Leo XIV has come to honor, but a movement that has matured, rooted in more than eighty countries, and which nevertheless continues to present itself not as an organization but as an experience: that of encountering the living Christ in a concrete community of brothers and sisters.

This forty-four-year gap deserves reflection for what it reveals. Between 1982 and 2026, no successor of Peter had deemed it necessary to physically travel to Rimini, even though several popes sent messages or received delegations from the movement at the Vatican. This prolonged silence, followed by such a solemn return, traces a trajectory that is not linear: it traverses the internal tensions experienced by Communion and Liberation after the death of its founder in 2005, the questions surrounding its institutional future, and then a form of gradual reconciliation with the Roman hierarchy. Leo XIV's choice to renew this visible link, just a few weeks before his first major apostolic journey to France, suggests a continuity of thought: that of a pontiff who prioritizes ecclesial movements as privileged sites for the new evangelization, rather than solely traditional diocesan structures.

Communion and Liberation, a charism for our time

Don Giussani and the beauty method

The Communion and Liberation movement was born in 1954, inspired by a young Milanese priest, Luigi Giussani, then a religion teacher at a classical high school in Milan. His method deliberately broke with the defensive apologetics of the time: rather than rationally demonstrating the truth of Christianity in the face of a secularized world, Giussani encouraged his students to personally verify, through their own lived experience, whether the Christian message truly resonated with the deepest longings of their hearts. He summarized this central insight throughout his life with a now-famous phrase: Christianity is not primarily a moral code or a doctrine, but an event, an encounter that transforms one's perspective on everything.

This pedagogy of encounter finds a striking echo in the episode of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, when the Risen Christ walks beside two distraught men without immediately revealing himself, and the text specifies: «Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him» (Lk 24:31). Giussani liked to say that the Christian faith is never the product of abstract reasoning, but always the consequence of a presence that allows itself to be recognized in the concrete reality of a story, a face, a community. The Rimini Meeting, in its very architecture, obeys this logic: it is not a doctrinal congress, but a space where scientific conferences, art exhibitions, political debates, and personal testimonies intersect, all permeated by the same implicit conviction: that the truth of Christ illuminates the whole of human existence, including its most secular dimensions.

A recognized movement, caught between loyalty and controversy

Canonically recognized as an international association of the faithful by the Holy See, Communion and Liberation has undergone a sometimes painful period of restructuring since the death of Father Giussani in 2005. His designated successor, Julián Carrón, led the Fraternity for nearly fifteen years before Pope Francis, in 2021, reformed the statutes, imposing term limits for leaders of ecclesial movements. This led Carrón to step down in favor of Davide Prosperi. This transition, experienced by some members as a challenge to the movement's charismatic autonomy, also provided an opportunity for a valuable process of discernment regarding the precise nature of Giussani's legacy, balancing fidelity to the letter of his teachings with the need to embody them within a profoundly transformed ecclesial and social context.

It is precisely within this context of institutional maturation that Leo XIV's gesture takes on its full significance. By choosing to attend the Meeting in person, the Pope was not simply honoring one movement among many: he was signaling that the growing pains experienced by Communion and Liberation were now behind it, and that the original charism of Don Giussani continued to bear fruit recognized at the highest levels of the universal Church. This recognition came at the very moment when the process of beatification of the founder, initiated by the Diocese of Milan, was underway, giving this visit an additional, almost anticipatory, resonance.

A pontificate that relies on ecclesiastical movements

The Prevost method: itinerancy and proximity

Since his election, Leo XIV has built his pastoral style around a sustained itinerary throughout Italy, visiting Pavia and Sant'Angelo Lodigiano in June, Lampedusa in early July, Assisi in early August, before San Marino and Rimini on August 22. This carefully chosen geography is not neutral: it systematically links places steeped in spiritual memory—the tomb of Saint Augustine in Pavia, the migrant border crossing in Lampedusa, the city of Saint Francis—to vibrant popular gatherings, as if to demonstrate that ancient holiness continues to nourish contemporary ecclesial experiences. The choice of Rimini crowns this logic by adding the distinctly charismatic dimension, that of movements born from the breath of the Spirit in the century that has just ended.

This emphasis on charisms is not entirely new in the Church's tradition, but it has taken on a burning relevance at a time when many Western dioceses are struggling to renew their vocations and Sunday Mass attendance. The Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, already reminded us that "there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the Spirit is the same" (1 Cor 12:4), and that each particular charism receives its full legitimacy from its capacity to build up the whole body of the Church. By going to Rimini, Leo XIV brought this Pauline theology of charisms into the present: it is not a matter of replacing parishes with movements, but of recognizing that the Spirit continues to inspire, within the very structure of the diocese, community experiences capable of awakening a faith sometimes dulled by habit.

Rimini as a dress rehearsal before France

The timing is no coincidence. This visit comes barely a month before Pope Leo XIV's major apostolic journey to France, scheduled for September 25-28, with stops in Paris, at UNESCO, in Lourdes, and in Metz. This French trip, the first papal visit to France since Benedict XVI in 2008, is themed "So that the world may have life," and includes a meeting with young people at the Stade de France and a giant Mass at the Place de la Concorde. The parallel with Rimini is striking: in both cases, the aim is to bring together young Catholics, sometimes a minority in their cultural environment, but eager to live their faith visibly and communally rather than privately and shamefully.

This two-part sequence—Rimini at the end of August, Paris and Lourdes at the end of September—reveals a coherent pastoral strategy: that of a pope who chooses to address himself first to vibrant communities, movements, and young people gathered together, before meeting with political authorities and major international institutions. The planned meeting at UNESCO, the seat of dialogue between cultures and knowledge, finds an anticipated echo in the very spirit of the Rimini Meeting, which has always affirmed its vocation to foster dialogue between the Christian faith and science, art, economics, and politics, without ever reducing the latter to a self-contained, confessional subculture.

Catholic youth facing a secularized world

The popular success of Meeting 2026, with its twenty thousand accreditations sold out in a matter of hours and its massive anticipation for the beach Mass, stands in stark contrast to the prevailing narrative of the inexorable secularization of Western Europe. This paradox deserves theological reflection: far from confirming the thesis of a disappearing Christianity, this type of gathering reveals a very real spiritual thirst in a generation that has not, however, received the dense catechetical heritage of its grandparents. The psalmist, in a supplication that seems written for our time, exclaimed: «My soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, in a deserted and waterless land» (Psalm 62:2). This thirst is not extinguished by institutional secularization; it shifts, seeking other channels, other forms of community mediation, for which ecclesial movements like Communion and Liberation now offer a renewed framework.

It would be naive, however, to reduce this enthusiasm to a mere religious fad. For forty-seven years, the Rimini Meeting has operated on a demanding principle: that of serious intellectual training, combining academic lectures, economic debates, and meetings with leading figures from the scientific and political worlds, in an explicit rejection of the anti-intellectualism that sometimes plagues certain contemporary devotional circles. It is precisely this demand for rigor, combined with a palpable sense of community, that explains the loyalty of younger generations to this summer gathering, long after the founding generation of Don Giussani gave way to younger leaders like Davide Prosperi.

Lectio divina

🌍 Map