(ZENIT News / Vatican City – Castelgandolfo, 05.29.2025).- Pope Leo XIV made an unannounced journey on May 29 to Castel Gandolfo, where he visited the Laudato Si’ Village—an ambitious ecological and social education hub launched by Pope Francis in 2023.
Leaving the Vatican in a discreet motorcade, the pontiff arrived mid-morning in the hilltop town of the Castelli Romani, long associated with papal retreats. But unlike past visits that focused on rest, Leo XIV came with a pastoral eye toward the future: the future of the Church’s commitment to what Francis called “integral ecology.”
Escorted by Cardinal Fabio Baggio and Father Manuel Dorantes, the operational head of the project, the pope first paused in the Garden of the Virgin Mary—a quiet, contemplative space that has long been dear to popes seeking solace and prayer. From there, he walked through the Belvedere Gardens, where the final preparations were underway for the formal inauguration of the Borgo Laudato Si’.
The village, occupying part of the historic Pontifical Villas and surrounding agricultural lands, is more than a symbolic gesture. It is a living manifestation of the ecological theology outlined in the 2015 encyclical «Laudato Si’», which called for a radical rethinking of humanity’s relationship with the natural world and each other.
Ten years on, that vision is gaining new momentum.
Pope Leo XIV spent time at the archaeological crypt, the Criptoportico—once part of Emperor Domitian’s audience hall—where he remembered the humanitarian courage of Pope Pius XII, who sheltered over 12,000 people there during the 1944 bombings of World War II.
The day concluded with visits to the Apostolic Palace and Villa Barberini before Leo XIV returned quietly to Rome, leaving behind a renewed sense of papal support for what may become one of the Vatican’s most practical expressions of Catholic social teaching in the 21st century.
Some have read this visit of the pope to Castelgandolfo as an insight into the place and into Pope Francis’ decisions about the current layout. This itself triggered rumors about a reconsideration of retaking Castelgandolfo as a summer residence. Francis turned Castelgandolfo into a Museum in 2016, affecting the local population that lives from tourism around the presence of popes in the summer.
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