Pope Leo tells 70,000 at Montevideo vigil: 'Be saints!'
Illustration: Press Pass USAPope Leo XIV closed his first full day in Uruguay on Saturday night with a prayer vigil at Montevideo's Estadio Centenario, telling the 70,000 people inside that becoming a saint is the ultimate goal — and urging them not to settle for a half-hearted faith.
"Be saints!" the pope told the joyful crowd in the historic stadium, built in 1930 to host the first FIFA World Cup. "Do not settle for a merely decent life or for a habitual faith, content with doing only the essential. Do not give God only a part of yourselves — give yourselves completely!"
"Saints are men and women who overflow with the abundance of life in Christ," he said. "They are free and authentic people whose lives make it attractive to say a resounding 'yes' to love, truth and happiness. Do not be afraid, then, to aspire to holiness. Christ did not call us to mediocrity; he called us to a new and full life like his own."
The vigil capped a day that began with an open-air Mass for about 40,000 people in Paysandú, on the Uruguay River, and continued with a visit to the poor Casavalle neighborhood of Montevideo and a speech at the Catholic University of Uruguay. Leo arrived at the stadium in the popemobile, driving a lap around the field as the crowd cheered, and the night was filled with music, fireworks and classic Spanish Catholic hymns, with many in the stands sipping yerba mate and holding their phones aloft to light the stadium.
Cardinal Daniel Sturla, the archbishop of Montevideo, welcomed the pope by speaking the language of the country he leads. "Soccer is very important in our culture; we even speak about life using the language of soccer," the cardinal said, calling the pope's presence in the stadium "a spectacular goal!" He added: "We have not come merely to cheer from the stands. We don't want to just stay on the bench. Christ invites us to step onto the playing field of life — a match played out in our neighborhoods, our families and our workplaces."
During the vigil, Leo heard testimonies from young people who discovered the Catholic faith in their 20s, as well as from a married couple with five children. Giovanni, 22, told the crowd he was not baptized and attended a secular school, and that he had no personal encounter with God until he was 20. "I always felt a void that I tried to fill with fleeting things," he said. "I only heard about God through my grandmother, who prayed to the Virgin Mary for me." In 2023, after transferring to the University of Montevideo, he encountered a chapel and a priest for the first time — and realized, he said, that what he had always been searching for was God.
A Catholic family of seven, whose parents have been married for 30 years, also shared their testimony on stage, describing Uruguay as a nation with "few marriages and a declining birth rate" where "ideological currents call into question the value of life, marriage and the family." Leo answered them directly: "Young people, dare to take the step of marrying and starting a family yourselves. Do not be afraid of 'forever,'" he said. "Married couples, open your home to life, even when the world tells you that a child is a burden. If any of you feel that Christ is calling you to leave everything behind to follow him in the priesthood or in consecrated life, do not ignore that voice out of fear of missing out on other opportunities."
The pope addressed Uruguay's secularization head-on, telling the crowd, "When we try to build a world without God, we run the risk of leaving humanity without a place as well." Only about 9 percent of Uruguayans consider themselves practicing Catholics, in Latin America's most secular country. Leo encouraged them to see that as an advantage: their experience, he said, "can help brothers and sisters in other parts of the world who are beginning to discover, in different ways, what it means to be a minority."
He also underlined that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist and encouraged the crowd to seek out Eucharistic adoration. "That same Jesus who was born in Bethlehem, who died and rose again, lives forever and remains with us. He awaits us, truly present in the Eucharist," he said. "Seek him there, in Eucharistic adoration. Speak to him as you would to a friend, and let him look upon you."
Leo led the stadium in praying the Our Father before giving the final blessing. On Sunday, before departing for Argentina, he will celebrate a morning Mass in honor of Uruguay's patroness, Our Lady of the Thirty-Three, on the date of the annual pilgrimage to the national Marian shrine. He will visit Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Luján, Argentina, from November 8 to 11, before ending his apostolic journey in Peru, November 11 to 16. It is the first papal visit to Uruguay since St. John Paul II came in 1988.
Sources: OSV News (Nov 7, 2026); Rome Reports (Nov 8, 2026).
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