By The pontiff will personally present the Villanova University-sponsored award at the International Sustainability Conference Oct. 12–15.
A new medal named after Pope Leo XIV to recognize individuals who have worked toward ecological sustainability will be introduced in October 2026.
The pontiff will personally present the “Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal” at the International Sustainability Conference, to be held at the Patristic Institute Augustinianum in Rome from Oct. 12–15. The award ceremony will take place on Oct. 13 in the Borgo Laudato Si’ garden, part of the Pontifical Gardens in Castel Gandolfo.
The award and conference were established by Villanova University, a Catholic liberal arts university in Pennsylvania. This is where Leo XIV, formerly Robert Prevost, earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1977 and an honorary doctorate in 2014. The Dicastery for Integral Human Development will also sponsor the event.
The inaugural Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal is a permanent award that will be presented by the university every two years.
An award to reflect the care for our common home
In a July 20 press release, Villanova University’s president, Father Peter Donohue, OSA, explained that the medal will recognize individuals who embody the university’s core belief in ecological stewardship and the common good.
“The Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal reflects a deeply held belief at Villanova University: that care for our common home and care for one another are inseparable,” Donohue said. “By recognizing leaders whose work advances both environmental stewardship and the common good, we hope to inspire meaningful and lasting impact in communities around the world.”
The conference, themed “Responding to the Cries of the Earth and the Poor,” will gather more than 300 academics, church officials, and stakeholders for discussions on integral ecology.
The recipient of the Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal may come from any field and will be evaluated based on their efforts to advance sustainability and equity.
Another Villanova initiative to honor Leo XIV
The medal is not the only recent initiative by Villanova University to honor its most famous alumnus.
In July 2026, the university co-sponsored the 38th Annual Liberty Medal ceremony in Philadelphia, which awarded the pope the Liberty Medal ahead of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
On Nov. 1, the university’s basketball team will open its NCAA season in Rome with a men’s and women’s doubleheader against Notre Dame. The initiative was also inspired by Leo XIV, who will meet both teams in an audience ahead of the games.
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We read: “The conference, themed ‘Responding to the Cries of the Earth and the Poor,’ will gather more than 300 academics, church officials, and stakeholders for discussions on integral ecology.”
Two comments and a summary:
FIRST, all well and good, the connection between Solidarity and the often fouled and possibly punctured nest left to future generations. As in, “Man remains above all a being who seeks the truth and strives to live in that truth, deepening his understanding of it through a dialogue which involves past and future generations” (Centesimus Annus, CA, 1991, n. 49).
Along the way, with the useful neologism “integral ecology,” there still will be challenges to distinguish between a distinct and theocentric “integral humanism” (coined by Jacques Maritain) and our interactions with a distinct “natural ecology.” St. John Paul II maintained a clear distinction between the “ecological question” and an “authentic ‘human ecology’ (CA, nn. 36-40).
SECOND, otherwise, “sustainability” can become confused with political “globalism” as an ideology which, for some, merges sustainability with an abortion culture. Sustainability was mainstreamed under the U.N. Brundtland Commission Report in 1987 (“Our Common Future”). At the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development, Brundtland remarked:
“Morality becomes hypocrisy if it means accepting mothers suffering or dying in connection with unwanted pregnancies and illegal abortions and unwanted children living in misery. None of us, none of us, whatever our religion can disregard that abortions occur and that where they are illegal or heavily restricted the life and health of the woman is often at risk. Decriminalizing abortions should therefore be a minimal response to this reality and a necessary means of protecting the life and the health of women.”
SUMMARY: Sustainability and “The Gospel of Life,” both.
The only question I have is will the medal have an image of a Pachamama?