(ZENIT News / Papal Villa of Castel Gandolfo, 08.17.2025).- When Pope Leo XIV sat down for lunch at Castel Gandolfo on a warm August afternoon, it was not at the head of a grand table surrounded by diplomats or cardinals. Instead, under the shade of the Borgo Laudato Si’ in the papal gardens, he took his place beside four men and women assisted by Caritas of Albano. For more than an hour, the new pope listened, laughed, and broke bread with those whose daily lives are marked by struggle and resilience.
The meal followed a morning Mass at the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Rotonda and the Angelus prayer, but it was this moment of shared simplicity that seemed to define the day. Before the blessing of food, Leo XIV reminded those gathered of the spiritual depth of such an act. “To break bread together is to recognize Christ in our midst,” he said, pointing out that the Eucharist does not end at the altar but finds continuity in communion around the table.
More than one hundred guests joined the pope for the meal: homeless men and women, residents of local family homes, migrants welcomed in diocesan centers, and volunteers who accompany them daily. Their presence, Cardinal Fabio Baggio observed, was not a symbolic gesture but the embodiment of the vision of «Laudato si’». “This place,” he said, “fulfills the prophetic dream of Pope Francis: a village where Gospel hospitality begins with the poor, reminding us that there is no true ecology without justice, and no justice without fraternity.”
Bishop Vincenzo Viva of Albano welcomed the pope by affirming that no division should exist between benefactors and beneficiaries. “At these tables,” he said, “there is only one community of faces, stories, struggles, and hopes.”
At the end of the gathering, Leo XIV prayed spontaneously, thanking God for the food shared and for the presence of those around him. Then he moved from table to table, greeting each person in turn.
This was the first meal with the poor of Leo XIV’s pontificate, but it echoes a practice well established by his predecessor. Pope Francis, from the very first World Day of the Poor in 2017, made it a custom to dine with the homeless and marginalized in the Vatican. Over the years he repeated the gesture several times, both in Rome and during his apostolic journeys, signaling that no pastoral agenda was complete without direct closeness to the excluded.
For many of the guests in Castel Gandolfo, the setting—among the gardens once reserved for papal leisure—took second place to the fact that the pope himself listened as they spoke. As one volunteer whispered at the close of the lunch, “It felt less like being hosted at the Vatican and more like being part of a family meal.”
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