On Sunday, August 17, 2025, at 1:00 p.m., at Borgo Laudato Si’, in the Gardens of the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo XIV will share a meal with the poor of the Diocese of Albano.
The dishes will be prepared by local restaurateurs and served by volunteers from the diocesan Caritas of Albano and staff from Borgo Laudato Si’.

Following the celebration of the first Mass for the Care of Creation on July 9, Pope Leo returns to Borgo Laudato Si’ for a moment of deep spiritual significance: a second step that reaffirms and strengthens the Church’s commitment to integral ecology as part of its spiritual journey.

The lunch with the poor is a profoundly Gospel-inspired act, echoing the Last Supper, where Jesus not only broke bread but also washed the feet of His friends, saying: “Do as I have done to you.”
In this way, the Pope extends the liturgy of the altar into a concrete act of service and reminds the world that the Eucharist always leads us toward the poor.
“Love for the Eucharist is revealed in our ability to recognize and serve those on the margins. The Lord’s table compels us to encounter the peripheries of the world, where poverty, loneliness, and exclusion dwell. It is there—in the face of those who seek dignity and a listening ear—that we truly meet the face of Christ,” said Cardinal Fabio Baggio, Director General of Borgo Laudato Si’, in the message accompanying the initiative.

This shared meal testifies that care for Creation is inseparable from care for every person, especially those who are discarded, forgotten, or excluded. As Pope Francis states in Laudato Si’: “There can be no genuine ecology without social justice” (LS 49). And already in Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII affirmed that “Christian charity must always accompany justice, completing and surpassing it” (RN 36).

In this light, the initiative of Pope Leo XIV—firmly rooted in the Church’s Social Doctrine—takes on a prophetic dimension: in a world marked by individualism and indifference, it is a call to a love made real through concrete actions and selfless service. As the Bishop of Albano, Monsignor Vincenzo Viva, emphasizes: “It is only from the Eucharist that our desire to serve is born. It is only in service that the Eucharist becomes fully alive.”

As Borgo Laudato Si’ prepares for its official inauguration by Pope Leo XIV in the coming weeks, its doors first open to the poor. They are the honored guests of this project, born from the prophetic dream of Pope Francis—to create, within the Vatican State, a place where the principles of integral ecology and social justice found in Laudato Si’ can be tangibly and communally lived out.
As Don Manuel Dorantes, Executive Administrative Director of Borgo Laudato Si’, points out: “Gospel hospitality begins with the poor. Before speeches, before programs, before inaugurations, there is the embrace of Christ, who becomes food and concrete sharing.”

Read the greeting of the Holy Father (ITA)

Read the greeting of His Eminence Cardinal Fabio Baggio (ITA)