Monday, September 29, 2025

Pope Leo XIV in Castel Gandolfo again

Pope Leo XIV is taking another short break in Castel Gandolfo. 

He will set off for the Albanian mountains on Monday afternoon and return to the Vatican on Tuesday evening, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni announced on Monday afternoon. 

His next official appointment in Rome is the general audience on Wednesday morning in St Peter's Square.

Leo will then travel to Castel Gandolfo again on Wednesday afternoon: There he will preside over the "Celebration of Hope" at the start of the international climate conference "Raising Hope for Climate Justice". 

More than 400 representatives from the Church, climate science and civil society are expected to take part in the conference, which runs until Friday, including Arnold Schwarzenegger (78), Hollywood star, former governor of California and climate activist. 

Leo XIV wants to meet some of the participants for a personal dialogue. Brazil's Environment Minister Marina Silva, the President of the Brazilian Bishops' Conference and the Latin American Bishops' Council CELAM, Cardinal Jaime Spengler, and Maina Talia, Interior and Environment Minister of the island state of Tuvalu in the Pacific Ocean, are also expected in Castel Gandolfo.

Leo's Tuesday at Castel Gandolfo becomes standard

In recent weeks, Leo XIV has retreated to the estate on Lake Albano for around 24 hours every Monday evening to work and recuperate. Usually, audiences are rarely scheduled for the Pope on Tuesdays.

Unlike his predecessor Francis, Leo has clearly taken a liking to the papal second residence in the Alban Hills, around 30 kilometres south-east of Rome. For around 400 years, most popes resided there for several weeks each year, far away from the summer heat of Rome. 

After Leo's first visit to the small town high above Lake Albano on Ascension Day, he spent a good two weeks there in July and a few days in August.

At the beginning of September, the sports and nature lover opened the "Laudato si'" eco-centre in the papal gardens, which Francis founded in 2023. 

As Pope Francis has had a museum set up in the papal palace, Leo tends to stay overnight in the Villa Barberini, which is also part of the estate.