This summer, Rome welcomed over one million young people from all around the world to celebrate the Year of Hope at the Jubilee of Youth 2025. Among this throng of passionate young pilgrims were over 100 ECYD leaders from 15 different countries, who had gathered to take part in the International Encounter of ECYD Team Leaders (IEETL), in order to deepen their love for the Regnum Christi charism as it is lived among the youth, and to renew their enthusiasm for the mission.
This international encounter aims to reveal the beauty of the Regnum Christi charism, allowing participants to return to their localities with renewed enthusiasm for their mission. This summer’s IEETL event, which is held every two years, included 30 team leaders from the North American territory: 18 from the United States and Canada, led by Consecrated Woman of Regnum Christi, Natalia Santos and Fr. Matthew Schmitz, LC; and 12 from the Philippines, led by Consecrated Woman of Regnum Christi, Cathy Floro, and Fr. Robert Antonio, LC.
The ECYD leaders spent the first week at a retreat center north of Rome, where they took part in prayer and reflection, formative talks and workshops, retreats, group activities, and a pilgrimage to Assisi, which included a visit to the Basilicas of St. Francis and St. Clare and the resting place of the now-canonized St. Carlo Acutis.
During the second week, the team leaders attended the Jubilee of Youth, a weeklong event celebrated throughout the city of Rome. Here, they joined one million other young people for a week of activities that included workshops and encounters throughout the city, opportunity for the sacrament of reconciliation, and a prayer vigil with Pope Leo XIV, complete with adoration, live music, and a Q&A with the Holy Father. The ECYD leaders also had the opportunity to visit the holy doors of the major basilicas during this jubilee year, and renew their Pledge of Friendship at the Church of St. Agnes.
“Now, it’s time to lead.”
Curtis Rober, who hails from Louisiana, is one of the ECYD team leaders who attended the IEETL and Jubilee of Youth in Rome. For Curtis, one of the most powerful moments of the trip happened on the final evening of the Jubilee of Youth event during the Vigil with the Holy Father at Tor Vergata: “It was just me, over one million people, and the Pope, kneeling down, looking at the Eucharist, in absolute silence.”
“We all had a very different personal relationship with Christ, but each one of us had a moment when Christ personally reached out to us and told us something that gave us a little more motivation to keep going,” says Curtis of the impact that the trip had on him and on his fellow ECYD team leaders. “Now it’s time to lead—and I’m 100 percent confident that everyone who was there is going to change the world.”
A Pentecost in the heart of Rome
Consecrated Woman of Regnum Christi, Natalia Santos, was one of the trip coordinators and part of the spirituality team who accompanied the youth throughout the two weeks. Originally from El Salvador, Natalia was an ECYD member and missionary herself, and for nearly a decade she has been serving as an ECYD director, in Atlanta, Georgia, and now Washington, DC.
For Natalia, what moved her most about the event was the close community that was created in a relatively short time, and among a group of participants from such diverse cultural experiences—of the 124 ECYD leaders that attended the encounter, about a quarter of them came from the North American territory (United States, Canada, and the Philippines), while other leaders came from Latin America (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, and El Salvador), Europe (Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, and France) and Côte d’Ivoire.
For me, it was a little Pentecost experience! We were coming from all different nationalities, so many different languages, and for some reason we were all able to communicate—not because we spoke the same language, but because we had the same charism within. It was so beautiful to see these kids from all around the world coming together as teams—they started as strangers, but within the first few days, they had become family.
And this unity in one charism, and in one faith, was a theme that continued throughout the entire experience. Natalia recounts an encounter that occurred during the Jubilee of Youth while returning from seeing Pope Leo XIV for the first time:
On the way back, we shared a metro car with a group of Spanish kids singing and playing guitars. At the next stop, a group of Brazilians came in singing and playing drums, and suddenly, the Spanish and Brazilian groups started singing the same tune, the same hymn, in their different languages. This is our Church!”
And this is precisely the message that Pope Leo XIV gave to the one million youth gathered at the vigil on the final night of the Jubilee of Youth:
We encounter Christ in the Church, that is, in the communion of those who sincerely seek him. The Lord himself gathers us together to form a community—not just any community, but a community of believers who support one another. How much the world needs missionaries of the Gospel who are witnesses of justice and peace! How much the future needs men and women who are witnesses of hope! Dear young people, this is the task that the Risen Lord entrusts to each one of us!
ECYD is the Regnum Christi charism lived by adolescents, who make a pledge of friendship with Christ and with each other, to transform the world for Christ. For more information about ECYD in your area, visit their website at ECYD – Regnum Christi.
