Pope Leo XIV Inaugurates Borgo Laudato Si’ at Castel Gandolfo

By Linda Bordoni (Vatican News)

Pope Leo XIV attends the inauguration of the “Borgo Laudato Si'” Advanced Training Center at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo (Italy), 5 September 2025.

Pope Leo XIV on September 5 inaugurated the Laudato si’ Village (Borgo Laudato sì’) at Castel Gandolfo, describing it as a “seed of hope” and a tangible model for ecological conversion.

The project, first envisioned by Pope Francis, brings together spirituality, education, history, nature, art and sustainable innovation as a living witness of the Church’s commitment to care for creation and for the most vulnerable.

Arriving through the main gate of the complex, the Pope was welcomed by those who daily serve pilgrims and visitors to the Village. Walking along a tree-lined avenue, he greeted families, giving life to what he later described as the central theme of “welcome,” a principle that unites the care of creation with solidarity and human dignity.

Call for Integral Ecology

The Holy Father continued his visit in an electric cart, a sign of the project’s commitment to sustainable mobility. He paused in the historic Little Madonna Garden, where earlier this summer he had celebrated the first Mass with the new liturgy dedicated to the Custody of Creation.  Proceeding through gardens and ancient ruins, he met workers and their families, thanking them for their care of the land and the over 3,000 plant species cultivated within the Borgo.

At the biodynamic vineyard, he greeted farm workers and blessed animals, including some beautiful horses, highlighting integral ecology as care both for creation and for people.

Liturgy of the Word in the Greenhouse

Presentation of the Borgo Laudato Si, historic papal residence newly opened to the public, which will be officially inaugurated next Friday by Pope Leo XIV. Castel Gandolfo (Italy), 2 September 2025.

The culmination of the day came in the newly built greenhouse, a multifunctional and net-zero energy complex that serves as the beating heart of the Borgo Laudato Si’ project. It is also the headquarters of a Higher Education Centre destined to host all sorts of initiatives dedicated to ecological sustainability. There, Pope Leo XIV presided over the Liturgy of the Word and the Rite of Blessing, accompanied in prayer by music offered by tenor Andrea Bocelli and his son Matteo.

The Laudato Si’ Higher Education Center is headed by Fr. Manuel Durantes, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, who was appointed by Pope Francis in November of 2024. He had told reporters September 2, “The message that Pope Francis wanted to send is that if we, the smallest city-state in the world, can do this, what is the potential for other states that are bigger than us?”

In his homily Pope Leo reflected that “Care for creation is truly a vocation for every human being. We are creatures among creatures, entrusted with the responsibility to care for all that the Creator has made,” he said.

He highlighted that the Borgo Laudato Si’ is to be a “living laboratory” of faith and sustainability.

“What we see today is a synthesis of extraordinary beauty, where spirituality, daily life and technology dwell together in harmony.”

Andrea Bocelli: “The Borgo Laudato Si‘ Is a True Miracle of Goodwill”

Singer Andrea Bocelli greets Pope Leo at the Borgo Laudato Si’ inauguration September 5 (photo: andreabocelliofficial on Instagram)

Tenor Andrea Bocelli on September 6 commented on the inauguration on Facebook:

“It was deeply moving to witness firsthand the tangible expression of what Pope Francis so powerfully advocated in his encyclical Laudato Si’: the urgent need for an ecological conversion for our common earthly home.

“A decade later, the project bearing the same name on the grounds of Castel Gandolfo stands as a perfect example of this vision — a true miracle of goodwill, where the splendor of nature and human endeavor meet: ‘a creature among creatures,’ as Pope Leo XIV underlined, entrusted with the sacred duty of care (for nature ‘cannot but speak to us of God’).

“The joy of witnessing the inauguration of the Laudato Si’ Village — a virtuous center of advanced education, inclusion, hospitality, and sustainability — was made even greater by the honor of singing before the Holy Father, a man of God and a figure of the highest stature, both spiritual and intellectual.

“When, together with my son Matteo, we intoned Dolce Sentire— a prayer that evokes the sacredness and harmony of creation — I felt, as I had not in a long time, the strength of Divine Providence and a renewed serenity in celebrating the universal Church, which in Pontifex Leo XIV has found a new and steadfast Shepherd, a beacon to guide us through these complex times.”