Two months after celebrating a new Mass “for the care of creation,” Pope Leo XIV will return to Castel Gandolfo to formally inaugurate Borgo Laudato Si’, a place of education, ecology, and spirituality in the papal summer estate.
Castel Gandolfo
Pope Leo XIV paid a private visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace of Mentorella, high in the Monti Prenestini mountain range of central Italy.
Spending the day with the poor, Pope Leo XIV prayed that Catholics would make sure their parishes are welcoming of all people and would be “on fire” with God’s love.
Peering at the sunlit skies through a Vatican-owned space telescope and calling the last surviving member of the Apollo 11 spaceflight mission was how Pope Leo XIV celebrated the anniversary of the first crewed moon landing.
As part of his summer break, Pope Leo XIV visited members of the Italian Carabinieri in Castel Gandolfo and the Poor Clares in nearby Albano Laziale.
“We must pray for the conversion of many people, inside and outside of the Church, who still do not recognize the urgency of caring for our common home,” Pope Leo XIV said while celebrating a new formulary of the Mass “for the care of creation.”
Pope Leo XIV began his summer break July 6 at Castel Gandolfo, where he’ll stay through July 20. But don’t expect the Holy Father to simply relax.
After more than a decade without its most famous vacationer, the quiet town of Castel Gandolfo once again counts the pope among its summer residents.