ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV fed fish in the fishpond, pet horses and visited organic vineyards Friday as he inaugurated the Vatican’s ambitious project to turn Pope Francis’ preaching about caring for the environment into practice.
Leo formally opened Borgo Laudato Si, a 55-acre utopian experiment in sustainable farming, vocational training and environmental education located on the grounds of the papal summer retreat in Castel Gandolfo. The Vatican hopes the center, open to student groups, CEOs and others, will be a model of ecological stewardship, education and spirituality for the Catholic Church and beyond.
Leo travelled by helicopter to Castel Gandolfo and then zoomed around the estate’s cypress-lined gardens in an electric golf cart to reach the center, which is named for Francis’ landmark 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si,” or Praised Be. The document, which inspired an entire church movement, cast care for the planet as an urgent and existential moral concern that was inherently tied to questions of human dignity and justice, especially for the poor.
Leo has strongly reaffirmed Francis’ focus on the need to care for God’s creation, and celebrated the first “green” Mass in the estate’s gardens earlier this summer, using a new set of prayers inspired by the encyclical that specifically invoke prayers for creation. On Friday, some 10 years after Laudato Si was published, Leo presided over a liturgy to bless the new center after touring its gardens, farm and classrooms.
Leo recalled that according to the Bible, human beings have a special place in the act of creation, created in the “image and likeness of God.”
“But this privilege comes with a great responsibility: that of caring for all other creatures, in accordance with the creator’s plan,” he said. “Care for creation, therefore, represents a true vocation for every human being, a commitment to be carried out within creation itself, without ever forgetting that we are creatures among creatures, and not creators.”
I admit I dont follow religion centric news articles so excuse me if im way off base and that im basing this comment on the assumption a mjority of priests have stopped fucking kids. With that being said, i wish most governments put in the same efforts the Vatican seems to show in actively making changes to become more tolerant, progressive and modern. In the 15 to 20 years since the last catholic school kicked me out, I feel like the church has gone from the poster child for hating gays, hating safe sex, actively covering up all the kid fuckers, ignoring climate change and avoiding geopolitical conflicts; and has grown into a go earning body that acknowledges its past fuck ups, grew to include gays, seemingly stopped fucking kids, actively supports changes for climate control, and even calling out leaders for allowing a genocide to happen.
Im definitely not saying the people who follow the church are the dumbest most closed minded hateful fuckin people in the world. Im just commenting on the governing body I see for headlines of articles I have no interest in reading lol
Dude, even Francis was shifting pedo priests around and hiding their crimes. Don't fall for it