Photo Credit: Laudato Si'

Our Planet Earth

Author’s note: This website encourages and informs all people to act with care for our Common Home.

Introduction

We are so pleased that Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV opened Borgo Laudato Si’ to the public. It acts as a new ecological center with the historic Papal Villas of Castel Gandolfo, a summer residence for popes. The size of the property is about 135 acres, located 15-18 miles south of Rome, Italy. The center promotes Pope Francis’s teaching in integral ecology through sustainable farming, vocational training, and environmental education. Borgo in Italian means village, hamlet, or borough.

Pope Leo XVI had an inaugural ceremony at Borgo Laudato Si‘ on September 5, 2025 which included a Liturgy of the Word on Care for Creation, a homily emphasizing humanity’s role as “custodians” of creation, and musical performances by Andrea Bocelli and his son Mateo. It featured greenhouses, farmland, and gardens, all powered by renewable energy to teach and promote ecological stewardship. The Pope blessed animals and land, highlighting the concept of “integral ecology,” which connects care for the environment with care for people.

Borgo Laudato Si’ is accessible to everyone, including students, religious communities, business leaders, and the vulnerable, and it represents a future vision for the Catholic Church. Carol Glatz reported on this property on September 5, 2025 in “Pope inaugurates center, farm dedicated to zero waste, inclusive economy”.

The center embodies the vision of Pope Francis, first conceived in 2023, and is intended to continue his legacy of environmental stewardship. There are over 3,000 Catholic dioceses worldwide, with recent estimates placing the number at about 3,172 ecclesiastical jurisdictions as of mid-2024. This number includes dioceses and archdioceses and is an estimate that includes over 652 archdioceses and about 2,250 dioceses. The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development which also includes the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, reported in their 2024 Annual Report 4,904 institutions and 5,156 families and individuals registered, broken down into:

✓ 1,161 Schools
✓ 955 Organizational Groups
✓ 726 Congregations
✓ 668 Religious Communities
✓ 581 Parishes
✓ 257 Universities
✓ 240 Dioceses
✓ 159 Health and Healing
✓ 104 Economic Entities

The center will act to evangelize people in and beyond the Church, calling them to a spiritual “ecological conversion” and a renewed relationship with God and creation. Using environmental care as a moral issue

rooted in a deep faith perspective, it aims to engage greater global importance and make the Church’s message relevant to contemporary challenges. It grounds faith in action, encouraging a lifestyle of care for the environment as a form of discipleship and a way to encounter God.

It is a beautiful property where humankind can act in evangelizing ecology by using sustainable measures such as renewable energy, living off the land, and coexisting with nature. Crops will be grown along with raising livestock, which will allow, in 2026, a restaurant to be opened by a chef and owner from Chicago, Illinois. Meals will be served from what is grown on the property. Also, the University of Notre Dame offers at the center a 1 credit course in environmental studies.

Borgo Laudato Si’ is a wonderful opportunity to show the world how we can live in harmony with nature. It’s our way of practically working on aspects to be sustainable. This property will offer humankind the ability to act upon what will make this world better, and having Pope Leo spearhead this effort is truly remarkable. It’s been 10 years since Pope Francis published Laudato Si’, and even today many people have not accepted his words of caring for creation, and many people have done little to follow sustainable ways of living. This educational center will be a shining and practical way of showing how things can work, and maybe it will be an example of how the rest of the world can be. We pray that it may jump-start others into what is possible, and that we bring God back everywhere into our lives.

What Can You Do?

Learn more about Borgo Laudato Si’ and try to emulate its successes. Maybe we will learn how to live without plastics, be more efficient in using products that are biodegradable, or grow crops with organic soil made from compost. Bee hives may be constructed and honey procured along with creating even more flower gardens for pollinators, birds, and wildlife. Rainwater too could be captured and used for irrigation and drinking. Similarly and most importantly, most of the land will be permeable and maintain quality air and water standards.

YouTube on Borgo Laudato Si’ - Evangelization through Ecology:

Quote: “Injustice, violations of international law and the rights of peoples, grave inequalities, and the greed that fuels them are spawning deforestation, pollution, and the loss of biodiversity” - Pope Leo XIV

Tom Cervone, Ph.D., is the founder of Our Planet Earth. Sister Maureen Houlihan, D.C., is a member of the “Care of Earth” Committee of the Daughters of Charity. Nicole Cervone-Gish, Ed., M.S. is an award-winning St. Elizabeth Anne Seton teacher at Holy Spirit. Michael Cervone, B.S., is the programmer and designer of Our Planet Earth website.

Comments may be directed to ourplanetearth.eco@gmail.com Thank you!