Pope Leo XIV to share lunch with 200 people in need at Castel Gandolfo

The gathering will take place during the pope’s July stay at the papal villa and will include prayer, a guided visit to Borgo Laudato Si’, and a meal with people served by Catholic charities in Rome.

Pope Leo XIV will spend his vacation at the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo in Italy until July 27, but he also plans to devote part of that time to sharing lunch with about 200 people experiencing poverty and social vulnerability in the Diocese of Rome.

The meeting will take place Saturday, July 11, as part of a day of welcome, prayer, and fraternity organized at Borgo Laudato Si’, the ecological project promoted by the Holy See in the Pontifical Gardens of Castel Gandolfo, a town on Lake Albano about 18 miles south of Rome.

The initiative, titled in Italian “A pranzo con il Papa” (“Lunch with the Pope”), is intended to offer a space of closeness and fellowship for people facing economic or social hardship in an atmosphere inspired by fraternity, care for creation, and solidarity.

The day will bring together homeless people and others assisted by parishes, Caritas, and various Church organizations that work with people facing poverty, exclusion, forced migration, or social fragility.

The gathering will begin with the celebration of Mass using the “Missa pro custodia creationis,” or “Mass for the Care of Creation,” an official addition to the Roman Missal made by Pope Leo XIV that includes new readings and prayers focused on integral ecology.

Afterward, participants will take part in a time of fellowship and a guided visit to Borgo Laudato Si’ before the most anticipated moment of the day: lunch with the Holy Father.

More than a shared meal, the organizers said, the event is intended to become a concrete sign of the pastoral style Leo has sought to give his pontificate: a Church close to those living on the human and social peripheries.

The initiative is rooted in an experience that marked the first months of Leo’s pontificate. On Aug. 17, 2025, Leo shared a meal with people living in poverty from the Diocese of Albano. That experience led to the decision to make the gathering an annual event promoted by the Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education, which is responsible for the development of Borgo Laudato Si’.

Each year, a different diocese will be invited to bring vulnerable people for a day of contact with nature, fraternity, and encounter with the pope, the organizers said in a statement.

Cardinal Fabio Baggio, director general of the Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education, said the project seeks to show that “care for creation and attention to the human person are part of one mission.”

“After Lampedusa, this day represents a new stage on Pope Leo XIV’s path toward the social peripheries of our time,” Baggio said. “At Borgo Laudato Si’, the Holy Father meets people living in situations of vulnerability, reaffirming that the Church is called to be present wherever human dignity calls for listening, closeness, and hope.”

Archbishop Luis Marín de San Martín, prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, said the pope’s gesture recalls that “charity consists of closeness, encounter, and sharing.”

“When the Church places the most vulnerable people at the center, it makes the Gospel visible and bears witness that no one is on the margins of God’s heart,” he said.

Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the pope’s vicar general for the Diocese of Rome, said the main participants in the day will be people who are accompanied each day by the Christian communities of the Italian capital.

“The meeting with the Holy Father restores a leading role to those who too often remain on the margins and reminds the entire Christian community of its responsibility to welcome,” Reina said.

Among the organizations collaborating in the initiative are the diocesan Caritas of Rome, the Community of Sant’Egidio, Centro Astalli, ACLI Rome, the Vincentian Family, and numerous parishes and associations dedicated to accompanying vulnerable people.

With the event, Borgo Laudato Si’ again presents itself as a living laboratory where the integral ecology promoted by the Church is translated into concrete acts of inclusion, encounter, and human development. Once again, Leo seeks to place at the center those who often remain outside the spotlight, recalling that attention to the most fragile is not a secondary activity of the Church but an essential expression of the Gospel.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.