ROME (OSV News): “Lunch with the Pope” was described as “a day of welcome and fraternity” for around 200 people from the Diocese of Rome, who enjoyed lunch with Pope Leo XIV in the Pontifical Gardens of Castel Gandolfo, on July 11, according to the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Centre for Higher Education.
The guests, including nearly 40 children, enjoyed a guided tour of the gardens following a Mass celebrated by Fabio Cardinal Baggio, general director of the Laudato Si’ Centre for Higher Education, and concelebrated by Archbishop Luis Marín de San Martín, prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity.
“I came without a prepared speech, but I did come with hunger—hunger for justice, hunger for genuine charity, hunger for a Church that truly knows how to open its doors, to welcome and receive everyone; where there is love for all and no one is an enemy, where all of us know how to live reconciliation, forgiveness and peace,” Pope Leo said, welcoming those present at Castel Gandolfo’s Borgo Laudato Si’ [Laudato Si’ Village], Vatican News reported.
The pope recalled that one of the titles of a pope is “pontiff—a builder of bridges,” adding, “And today we too want to build a bridge with all of you, with your families, and with the society in which we want to live—a society marked by justice, where the causes of poverty can be eliminated and where the causes of the injustices that still exist in our world can be overcome,” Pope Leo said.
“This,” he said, “is the Church we want to be.”
Pope Leo first met people experiencing vulnerability from the Diocese of Albano on 17 August 2025, only a few months after being elected pope. This gave rise to an annual tradition of encounters with the underprivileged.
I came without a prepared speech, but I did come with hunger—hunger for justice, hunger for genuine charity, hunger for a Church that truly knows how to open its doors, to welcome and receive everyone
Pope Leo XIV
“Each year, a diocese will be invited to involve people living in situations of poverty, refugees, migrants, and others experiencing social vulnerability,” to let them experience “the beauty of creation” and create an “opportunity to meet the Holy Father,” the Laudato Si’ Centre said.
Cardinal Baggio said in the July 7 press release that “Borgo Laudato Si’ was created to show that the care of creation and the care of the human person are one and the same mission.”
The cardinal said, “After Lampedusa, this day represents a new step in Pope Leo XIV’s journey towards the social peripheries of our time,” referencing Pope Leo’s July 4 visit to the Italian island that serves as both a place of hope for a new life and a place of tragedy for those who never made it across the sea to Europe.
“At Borgo Laudato Si’, the Holy Father meets people experiencing vulnerability, reaffirming that the Church is called to inhabit the places where human dignity calls for listening, closeness and hope,” Cardinal Baggio said.
Whenever we come together, whenever we share this spirit of encounter around the same table—the one table where Jesus is also present among us,
Pope Leo
Archbishop Marín, the papal almoner, emphasised that the encounter embodies the Church’s service to the poor.
“The Holy Father’s choice confirms that charity consists of closeness, encounter and sharing. When the Church places the most vulnerable people at the centre, it makes the gospel visible, and bears witness that no one is on the margins of God’s heart,” he said in the July 7 statement.
Pope Leo expressed his gratitude to those who organised the July 11 gathering, which included dozens of organisations that assist people experiencing vulnerability on a daily basis.
“Whenever we come together, whenever we share this spirit of encounter around the same table—the one table where Jesus is also present among us,” Pope Leo said.
“We are truly building a different world, a world of hope, a world that is a light in the midst of our own,” he added.
The pontiff urged that in a world fractured by “violence, hatred and discrimination,” communities need to “work together and strive always to be this kind of Church: a Church of justice, peace and love,” praying that in the families of those who gathered in the picturesque setting of Castel Gandolfo people may “find peace, forgiveness and reconciliation.”
Baldassare Cardinal Reina, vicar general for the Diocese of Rome, said that “the encounter with the Holy Father restores centrality to those who too often remain on the margins and calls the entire Christian community to the responsibility of welcome.”
