Pope Leo XIV Makes Surprise Visit to Pope Francis' Borgo Laudato Si at Castel Gandolfo on Ascension Day

Pope Leo XIV traveled to Castel Gandalfo, on Thursday, May 29, and he paid a visit to the Borgo Laudato Sì, an area of the papal residence converted by Pope Francis into a space for education and forming awareness about the care for our common home.
Vatican News released that Pope Leo XIV made a surprise outing on Ascension Thursday to the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, where he visited the Borgo Laudato Sì project initiated by his the late Pope Francis.
The Borgo Laudato Sì (“Laudato Sì Village”), located on the grounds of the Papal Villas, is a space dedicated to formation and education on the theme of the earth as our “common home”—an example of the “integral ecology” of the encyclical for which it is named.

While on his visit to Castel Gandolfo, the Holy Father also visited the Apostolic Palace, which Pope Francis had transformed into a museum in 2016.
Laudato si' was published ten years ago by Pope Francis who highlighted the vital importance of care for our common home. The natural spaces surrounding the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo—including 20 hectares of farmland, greenhouses, and service buildings—were destined to be the best place to give a visible form to the principles proclaimed in the encyclical.

That vision became reality in 2023, when Pope Francis founded the Borgo with two chirographs, with the intention of making a tangible contribution “to the development of ecological education” under the auspices of the Laudato Sì Centre for Higher Education, established at the same time and tasked with raising awareness about care for the environment.
Employing experts in botany, biology, integral ecology, and related disciplines, the Borgo began to offer opportunities to explore the values underlying the encyclical and, at the same time, job preparation courses such as those for gardeners and green space maintenance workers.
The Borgo Laudato Sì is home not only entrepreneurs and specialists, schoolchildren, and university students, but also those who are marginalized, for whom Pope Francis had special affection, including migrants, women victims of violence, people with disabilities, ex-prisoners, people struggling with drug addiction, and many others who are often deprived of educational opportunities.
Source: Vatican News