Pope Leo Live

Next Friday, November 21, at 10:15 a.m. ET

In the Fall of 2003, I sat on a charter bus to Houston, TX to go to a conference my mom signed me up to attend. She was chaperoning, but thankfully let me sit with my friends on the back of the bus while she rode up front with the other adults.

“You’ll love it. Ms. T (our parish youth minister) said it’s like youth group on steroids.”

I liked youth group. The snacks were good. If it was just that, more intensely, then fine, I’d go. Plus, my friends were also going, and in my awkard middle school quest to become cool, I wanted to hang out with them.

I’m not sure I became cool, then or now, but I do remember that NCYC, and really every single one since.

I remember listening to speakers talk about how cool it was to be Catholic. I remember learning hand motions to a praise and worship song about trading sorrows. I remember hearing thousands of people saying the Creed together during Sunday Mass. And I remember leaving on Sunday, to make the two hour trek back to little Lake Charles, thinking the Church was and is so much bigger than I realized.

That’s what NCYC first showed me: the sheer size of the Church, and how young people are important within the Church.

NCYC is different than other events for young people, many of which are quite good and uplifting and valuable for formation. NCYC is the event from the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM), the Bishops’ event for young people, and the Bishops come. They are there, mingling with the youth, hosting sessions, having conversations. Youth groups come as a diocese, continuing formation together long after mainstage sessions and workshops and mega-sessions are completed. For many attendees, it’s the furthest they’ve ever traveled, the biggest name speakers they’ve ever heard, the largest crowd they’ve ever seen, and a beautifully significant moment to encounter the wider Church.

Throughout the years, NCYC has been a constant in the odd-year Novembers of my life. I didn’t get to go in 2005, because the hurricane that hit my home diocese depleted our travel funds. And in 2007, my freshman in high school sister begged me not to come to it (I would’ve flown in from college), because she wanted just one youth group thing without me there.

But I haven’t missed an NCYC since 2009. And I wouldn’t. It’s the best thing in November besides Thanksgiving.

I started speaking at them in 2011 and was at the conference with my now husband in 2013 (though we didn’t know each other yet, though he definitely would’ve walked past my booth, since it was right next to Matt Maher’s in the exhibit hall). I spoke again in 2015, this time newly engaged and then we brought our newborn daughter in 2017, while I did interviews for the livestream.

I tell you all this because I want you to know how meaningful NCYC is to me, personally and professionally. It’s been a constant in my life, and I have seen and felt the fruits and impact of this gathering of young people in a football stadium.

I hosted the mainstage in Lucas Oil Stadium in 2019, brought my SiriusXM show to broadcast in 2021 and 2023, and now, for NCYC 2025, I get to play a part in what might be the most monumentally important thing to ever happen at the National Catholic Youth Conference: a conversation, live, with the Pope.

As I’m sure you’ve heard, Pope Leo will be “visiting” the U.S. in a live digital encounter with young people at the National Catholic Youth Conference.

This is a one of a kind moment. Never before have we had this sort of exchange between American young people and the Holy Father, and I’m beyond humbled to moderate the conversation and guide some amazing young people through this dialogue with Pope Leo.

We’d love for you to tune in next Friday, November 21, at 10:15 a.m. ET, on EWTN.

It’s kind of a remarkable how this encounter came about. Only God could write this kind of story, and it’s worth telling.

In brief: the folks at the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry, by way of Archbishop Perez and the Apostolic Nuncio, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, asked for a 15 minute live exchange with Pope Leo back in June. Surprisingly, the Vatican said “No. We want 45 minutes.”

Let that sink in: Pope Leo, arguably the busiest man in the Church, with the highest profile and the longest to-do list…the man that everyone wants to see, talk to, shake hands with, and snap a selfie beside. That man, our Pope, wanted more time to talk with young people in the United States.

52 years ago, Pope Leo graduated high school in the United States of America. In a week, he’ll talk one on one with high school students in this country. It is unprecedented, and I think will be a hugely impactful moment in American Catholic life for years to come.

I think it’s also quite remarkable that every Pope since World Youth Day was established in 1986 has gone to a World Youth Day, and spent significant time with young people, in the first few months of his pontificate, in a place important to his story.

Benedict XVI went to WYD 2005 in Cologne, Germany, just five months after his April election. Pope Francis went to WYD 2013 in Brazil, also just five months after his March election. The first Latin American Pope returning to Latin America, millions gathering on a beach to see and pray with him. And now, Pope Leo, who had an epic Jubilee of Youth (like a mini-WYD during a Jubilee Year) this summer in Rome, will be speaking to young people in his home country, just six months after his May election.

Back in August, when news broke of this historic encounter, I sat down with Archbishop Nelson Perez, Christina Lamas, and Montse Alvarado to hear the story live on SiriusXM.

At the end of the interview, Christina asked me live, on air, if I’d be a part of this moment and help moderate the conversation with the Pope.

Thrilled is an understatement. I’m not often speechless — I get paid to talk after all — but in that moment, I was.

Over the past few weeks, we have diligently prepared for this exciting moment. We’ve had a number of formation meetings with the young people who will be speaking with Pope Leo, we have prayed a lot, talked about how excited we are, listened to dozens of young people share their hearts, shouted our excitement far and wide, and even hyped up thousands of people with an epic live pre-event featuring Jonathan Roumie, Matt Maher, Fr. Leo Patalinghug, and a lot of incredible people who see the significance of what will happen next Friday morning.

In 2019, about 10 minutes before Fr. Agustino Torres and I took the stage to open NCYC with 25,000 young people gathered in Lucas Oil Stadium, Christina Lamas (the exceutive director of NFCYM) pulled he and I aside.

“We have a surprise for you,” she said.

I thought perhaps they’d gotten us some extra snacks for sidestage, or maybe finally found the missing Diet Coke we’d been told would be at dinner.

“We need you to cue up a video from the Holy Father. Pope Francis has sent us a message.”

I nearly cried introducing it to the 25,000 people gathered to kick off the conference. It was a dream: to hear Pope Francis greet us, offer his prayers and blessing, and to know that all the way at the Vatican, the Vicar of Christ knew that we here in America were gathering for the National Catholic Youth Conference.

6 years later, the Vicar of Christ doesn’t just know NCYC is happening…he’s actually participating in it. He’s joining us. He’s going to be with us, live.

Do not miss this moment. Watch it with your families, in your classrooms, with your youth groups. Shout it from the rooftops: Pope Leo is talking to young people LIVE.

We’ll see you next Friday, at 10:15 a.m., from Lucas Oil Stadium, while we get to talk to the Pope.