About 200 poor people from the diocese of Rome will take part next Saturday, July 11, in the initiative «A pranzo con il Papa», which will be held at the Borgo Laudato si’ in the Pontifical Gardens of Castel Gandolfo. The day will include a Eucharistic celebration, a visit to the grounds, and lunch with Leo XIV.
The initiative is organized by the Centro de Alta Formación Laudato si’, in collaboration with the Dicastery for the Service of Charity and the diocese of Rome. It will be the second time Leo XIV shares a meal with poor people since the beginning of his pontificate.
Following that experience, the organizers decided to turn the gathering into an annual event, inviting a different diocese each year.
A day of encounter with the Pope
The program will begin with the celebration of the Eucharist using the Liturgy for the Care of Creation. Afterward, participants will tour the Borgo Laudato si’ on a guided visit and conclude the day by sharing lunch with the Holy Father.
The organizers anticipate that, starting this year, each edition will feature a different diocese, inviting poor people, refugees, migrants, and other individuals in need to take part in a day of fellowship and encounter with the Pope.
Participants from the diocese of Rome
In this first edition, people regularly accompanied by parishes, Caritas, and other ecclesial and associative entities of the diocese of Rome will attend.
Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the Pope’s vicar general for the diocese of Rome, noted that the protagonists of the day will be people accompanied daily by the parishes, Caritas, and other ecclesial realities of the diocese, with the aim of placing them at the center of this initiative.
The Borgo Laudato si’ project
Cardinal Fabio Baggio, director general of the Centro de Alta Formación Laudato si’, explained that the Borgo Laudato si’ project seeks to show that care for creation and attention to the poor are part of the same mission of the Church. In that context, he framed this day as a new stage in the initiatives promoted by Leo XIV directed toward social peripheries.
For his part, Monsignor Luis Marín de San Martín, prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, stated that this type of encounter expresses the dimension of closeness, encounter, and service proper to the Church’s charitable mission through direct contact with poor people accompanied by the various ecclesial realities.