This kind of faith news might not be on the front page of most mainstream publications — where attacks by ISIS on Christians around the world are well covered and rightly so — but the testament of World Youth Day is the best news you might hear all day.

Millions of young Catholics from all over the world traveled to Krakow, Poland, last week for a pilgrimage known as World Youth Day. Despite endless reports, surveys, and research recounting the indifference of young people toward religion — this event proves that many deeply care about faith and are willing to show others that they do too.

“The church continues to bring young people across the world to the faith.”

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The event garnered little media coverage in a news cycle dominated by much more “pressing” things (terrorism, a heated presidential campaign, etc.). Nevertheless, attendance reached staggering numbers. Reports this weekend said close to 2 million youth from around the world attended the closing Mass, held in a field outside of Krakow.

The event began on Monday, July 27, as crowds of pilgrims flew, drove, and rode trains into the Polish city. Events included an opening Mass, catechesis (religious education), a youth festival, and the closing Mass with Pope Francis.

The Vatican also just announced that the next World Youth Day will take place in Panama in 2019 (the event is held every three years).

Drew Dillingham, a young professional from Arlington, Virginia, who made the trip with his fiancée, commented, “In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus instructs his Apostles, ‘Go and make disciples of all nations.’ The opening Mass of World Youth Day shows what a great success the church continues to have in bringing young people across the world to the faith.”

Related: Love, Prayer, Commitment at World Youth Day

Europe has seen a sharp decline in religious participation. Poland, however, remains one of the most devoutly Catholic countries in the world. Its religious fervor is especially surprising considering the trials it’s faced over the last century. The country suffered Nazi and Soviet occupation and lost nearly 6 million citizens to ethnic cleansing and religious persecution.

It is also the birthplace of Karol Wojtyla, later known as Pope John Paul II, who started the tradition of World Youth Day.

Erin Fleishman, a student at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., traveled to Krakow along with thousands of American students and young adults.

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“This year is my first World Youth Day, and I could not imagine a better place than St. John Paul II’s parent country,” said Fleishman. “The story of struggle and overcoming pain that Poland boasts of is an example to all of us on how we should persevere in our individual and community faith lives.”

Overshadowing the event was the recent murder of a French priest by Muslim terrorists in Normandy, France. Pope Francis decried the murder, and prayed on Saturday during his trip to Poland for an end to a “devastating wave of terrorism.”

Pope Francis, however, also raised some eyebrows on his papal flight back to Rome when he said that terrorism and Islam could not be equated.

“This is a small fundamentalist group called ISIS,” the pope told a journalist aboard the flight in response to a question. But “I do not believe it is true or correct that Islam is terrorist … Terrorism is everywhere … Terrorism grows when there are no other options, and when the center of the global economy is a god of money and not the person — men and women — this is already the first terrorism!”