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.

Pope Leo XIV surprised tens of thousands of young Catholics on Tuesday and showed up unexpectedly at a Holy Year welcome ceremony, thrilling the kids and receiving a rock star’s welcome in the first big youth event of his pontificate.

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.