Omaha, Nebraska native Paul Fletcher, a student currently studying at the University of Notre Dame, provided his powerful testimony about his experience at the Jubilee of Youth.
Fletcher spoke with EWTN News while attending the Prayer Vigil for Youth with Pope Leo XIV on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025.
In a crowd of approximately one million people in Tor Vergata in Rome for the Jubilee of Youth, Fletcher believes the event “ramped up,” rather than “calmed down,” due to his touching, grace-filled experience.
“I think I’ve experienced the simplicity of grace,” he said. “And the simplicity with which the Lord condescends to the varieties of people that He loves and that He shepherds.”
As he saw the enormous crowd of “perhaps a million people… maybe more,”— Fletcher said, “the Lord is touching each one of them individually.”
“I think it's this really great reminder for me that it really doesn't matter exactly where I'm at in my life journey as opposed to somebody else or by comparison, because He's condescending to me.”
“It's really beautiful to see.”
What Thousands Are Venerating in Rome: Pier Giorgio Frassati’s Incorrupt Body at the Jubilee of Youth
“While venerating his body, I asked for his intercession to help me discover my vocation and to embrace it with the same joy he showed to everyone around him.”
Ishmael Adibuah