>"Welcome!", Pope Leo arrived in Castel Gandolfo amid applause and greetings from the people
Around 5:00 p.m., the Pope arrived in the town in Lazio, where he will spend a summer vacation. Along the road in front of Villa Barberini, a large group of faithful, some of whom had left from Rome, waited for hours for his arrival. The Pope got out of the car to greet them all, then surprisingly appeared on the balcony for another greeting. The parish priest of San Tommaso da Villanova: "He thanked us for the preparation." The Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said: "The Pope is grateful to continue his activity in such a beautiful place"
From today, July 6, until the 20th, the Pope will spend a period of summer rest in the Pontifical Villas of the municipality 25 kilometers from Rome.>
The signal was the opening of the gate and the exit of two Swiss Guards. The Pope got out to personally greet the long line of people under the sun, stopped for a couple of hours behind the barriers that they say the mayor also helped to fix this morning. Around 5 pm Pope Leo XIV arrived in Castel Gandolfo, the summer residence of the Popes 25 km from Rome, where he will spend a period of rest until July 20 and then a few days in August.
In the main square where the Apostolic Palace stands, which Pope Francis had wanted to open to the public by transforming it into a museum, life passed quietly for a few hours: tourists sat in bars and restaurants, the artisan shops were open, visitors to the museum complex were coming and going. All this until 4:30 p.m., the time at which it was known that the Pope would leave Rome. And so at that time many people began to move toward the entrance of Villa Barberini, the ancient palace where Pope Leo will reside.
At the Bar Etto , a refreshment point overlooking Lake Albano, a black banner with the white writing: "Welcome Pope Leo" was hanging. There, a group of nuns awaited the arrival, praying the Rosary. Meanwhile, a lady on the other side of the street shouted to an acquaintance: "Is he coming or not?" "Yes, yes, he's coming."
Leo XIV will be the sixteenth Pope to stay in the location chosen as a summer residence by the Pontiffs starting from the mid-seventeenth century. The Apostolic Palace visited in three ...
Applause and chants accompanied the passage of the papal car. A few meters from the entrance to Villa Barberini, Leo XIV – stopped the car and immediately went to the people, called from one side and the other: “Pope Leo!”, “Your Holiness!”, “Holy Father!”. As a first gesture he blessed some children in their parents’ arms, then greeted some elderly ladies. Among them was Conchita, a Spanish woman from Saragossa, on vacation in Italy: “I shook his hand and said: Papa León, te quiero mucho (Pope Leo, I love you so much)”.
Leo XIV shook as many hands as possible, then headed inside the Villa where Sister Raffaella Petrini, president of the Vatican Governorate, Bishop Vincenzo Viva, the director of the Pontifical Villas, Andrea Tamburelli, and Mayor Alberto De Angelis were waiting for him.
Also present was Don Tadeusz Rozmus, Polish parish priest of the pontifical parish of San Tommaso da Villanova, where the Pope will celebrate Mass next Sunday, July 13, the first public event in the Lazio municipality. A well-known biker, the parish priest joked with journalists outside Villa Barberini, saying that he had offered to accompany the Pope on his motorbike around Castel Gandolfo. “It was a formal/informal meeting, in the sense that the Holy Father greeted us but also stopped to talk to us, he said words of encouragement and thanks for preparing all this. Very open, very kind, smiling.”
Once the gate was closed, while the crowd was dispersing towards the square and the lake areas, a woman's scream caught everyone's attention: Pope Leo suddenly appeared on the balcony of the Villa. Behind the yellow and white flag of the Vatican City and behind the wooden panels decorated with ivy, with his personal secretary Edgard Ivan Rimaycuna at his side, the Pope waved to the people on the street.
Directly under the balcony was a group of four nuns, Daughters of the Sagrada Familia, a congregation born in Colombia, resident in Rome. And from Rome, Maria Deleite de los Santos, Maria Regina Pacis, Maria José (Peruvian from Piura) and Maria Maestra orante, left immediately after the Angelus to go and greet the Pope. “Ah, how kind of you to get out of the car to greet us!”, they exclaimed. They even managed to shake the Pontiff’s hand: “We have been to many audiences but this is the first time we have seen him so close up”. To Leo XIV, who begins his vacation this afternoon, the nuns leave a greeting and a wish: “Holy Father, we welcome you to Castel Gandolfo. We pray a lot for your intentions and for this truly deserved rest. We accompany your work with prayer”.
In the evening, the director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, announced that he had had the opportunity to briefly greet the Pope upon his arrival this afternoon: "He confirmed to me his pleasure in being in Castel Gandolfo, that he is grateful for the opportunities there will be to meet the people in the coming days and at the same time to be able to continue his activity in such a beautiful place".
Source: Vatican News Italian Ed
The signal was the opening of the gate and the exit of two Swiss Guards. The Pope got out to personally greet the long line of people under the sun, stopped for a couple of hours behind the barriers that they say the mayor also helped to fix this morning. Around 5 pm Pope Leo XIV arrived in Castel Gandolfo, the summer residence of the Popes 25 km from Rome, where he will spend a period of rest until July 20 and then a few days in August.
In the main square where the Apostolic Palace stands, which Pope Francis had wanted to open to the public by transforming it into a museum, life passed quietly for a few hours: tourists sat in bars and restaurants, the artisan shops were open, visitors to the museum complex were coming and going. All this until 4:30 p.m., the time at which it was known that the Pope would leave Rome. And so at that time many people began to move toward the entrance of Villa Barberini, the ancient palace where Pope Leo will reside.
At the Bar Etto , a refreshment point overlooking Lake Albano, a black banner with the white writing: "Welcome Pope Leo" was hanging. There, a group of nuns awaited the arrival, praying the Rosary. Meanwhile, a lady on the other side of the street shouted to an acquaintance: "Is he coming or not?" "Yes, yes, he's coming."
Leo XIV will be the sixteenth Pope to stay in the location chosen as a summer residence by the Pontiffs starting from the mid-seventeenth century. The Apostolic Palace visited in three ...
Applause and chants accompanied the passage of the papal car. A few meters from the entrance to Villa Barberini, Leo XIV – stopped the car and immediately went to the people, called from one side and the other: “Pope Leo!”, “Your Holiness!”, “Holy Father!”. As a first gesture he blessed some children in their parents’ arms, then greeted some elderly ladies. Among them was Conchita, a Spanish woman from Saragossa, on vacation in Italy: “I shook his hand and said: Papa León, te quiero mucho (Pope Leo, I love you so much)”.
Leo XIV shook as many hands as possible, then headed inside the Villa where Sister Raffaella Petrini, president of the Vatican Governorate, Bishop Vincenzo Viva, the director of the Pontifical Villas, Andrea Tamburelli, and Mayor Alberto De Angelis were waiting for him.
Also present was Don Tadeusz Rozmus, Polish parish priest of the pontifical parish of San Tommaso da Villanova, where the Pope will celebrate Mass next Sunday, July 13, the first public event in the Lazio municipality. A well-known biker, the parish priest joked with journalists outside Villa Barberini, saying that he had offered to accompany the Pope on his motorbike around Castel Gandolfo. “It was a formal/informal meeting, in the sense that the Holy Father greeted us but also stopped to talk to us, he said words of encouragement and thanks for preparing all this. Very open, very kind, smiling.”
Once the gate was closed, while the crowd was dispersing towards the square and the lake areas, a woman's scream caught everyone's attention: Pope Leo suddenly appeared on the balcony of the Villa. Behind the yellow and white flag of the Vatican City and behind the wooden panels decorated with ivy, with his personal secretary Edgard Ivan Rimaycuna at his side, the Pope waved to the people on the street.
Directly under the balcony was a group of four nuns, Daughters of the Sagrada Familia, a congregation born in Colombia, resident in Rome. And from Rome, Maria Deleite de los Santos, Maria Regina Pacis, Maria José (Peruvian from Piura) and Maria Maestra orante, left immediately after the Angelus to go and greet the Pope. “Ah, how kind of you to get out of the car to greet us!”, they exclaimed. They even managed to shake the Pontiff’s hand: “We have been to many audiences but this is the first time we have seen him so close up”. To Leo XIV, who begins his vacation this afternoon, the nuns leave a greeting and a wish: “Holy Father, we welcome you to Castel Gandolfo. We pray a lot for your intentions and for this truly deserved rest. We accompany your work with prayer”.
In the evening, the director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, announced that he had had the opportunity to briefly greet the Pope upon his arrival this afternoon: "He confirmed to me his pleasure in being in Castel Gandolfo, that he is grateful for the opportunities there will be to meet the people in the coming days and at the same time to be able to continue his activity in such a beautiful place".
Source: Vatican News Italian Ed
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