Pope to inaugurate Borgo Laudato Si’ during Season of Creation

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Two months after celebrating a new Mass “for the care of creation,” Pope Leo XIV will return to Castel Gandolfo to formally inaugurate Borgo Laudato Si’, a place of education, ecology and spirituality in the papal summer estate.

Famed tenor Andrea Bocelli and his son Matteo will sing during the late afternoon prayer service Sept. 5, the Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education announced Aug. 25.

The prayer service and inauguration of the center take place during the ecumenical Season of Creation, a time of Christian prayer and commitment that runs from Sept. 1 through the Oct. 4 feast of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of ecology.

Borgo Laudato Si’ is dedicated to living out the vision of Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical, “Laudato Si’, on care for our common home,” an effort that he said must combine care for the earth with care for the poor.

In his own message for the Sept. 1 World Day of Prayer for Creation, Pope Leo wrote that for Christians, care of creation is “a duty born of faith, since the universe reflects the face of Jesus Christ, in whom all things were created and redeemed.”

“In a world where the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters are the first to suffer the devastating effects of climate change, deforestation and pollution, care for creation becomes an expression of our faith and humanity,” Pope Leo wrote. “Now is the time to follow words with deeds.”

Pope Leo celebrated Mass in the gardens at the papal estate July 9, using the new formulary or prayers for Mass “for the care of creation.”

“The mission of safeguarding creation, of bringing peace and reconciliation” is “the mission which the Lord has entrusted to us,” Pope Leo said in his homily. “We listen to the cry of the earth, we listen to the cry of the poor, because this cry has reached the heart of God. Our indignation is his indignation; our work is his work.”

The Borgo Laudato Si’ press statement described the project’s mission as creating a model “where the care of creation and the defense of human dignity — especially for the most vulnerable — are not only taught but lived, rooted in the Gospel and open to all.”

The Borgo houses the Laudato Si’ Higher Education Center, which offers training in hospitality, livestock care, gardening and the processing of agricultural products. The courses are specifically designed for people living in vulnerable situations: migrants, refugees, unaccompanied minors, women victims of abuse, unemployed young and middle-aged people, people with special skills and former detainees, the center’s website said.

“Spread across 135 acres, the property includes historic gardens, villas, monuments and archeological sites, alongside farmland and new areas for education, organic farming and regenerative cultivation,” the center said. “It is a unique setting where spirituality, education and sustainability come together, offering an open and welcoming space for formation, prayer, reflection and deeper communion with God and creation.”