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Vatican Previews Borgo Laudato Si as Pope Leo XIV Set to Open Ecological Training Center

The project turns Laudato Si into a working farm-school at Castel Gandolfo with early training already running.

A view of the gardens inside the Vatican estate in Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
General view of the papal gardens at Borgo Laudato si', a space comprising some 55 hectares (136 acres) of gardens and agricultural land where Pope Leo will open the 'Laudato Si' Advanced Training Centre', a new Vatican-run ecological training centre, on the sprawling grounds of the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo, a small hamlet about an hour's drive southeast of Rome, Italy, September 2, 2025. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane
A view of the gardens inside the Vatican estate in Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
A view of the gardens inside the Vatican estate in Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

Overview

  • Officials offered a first look at a curved greenhouse modeled on St. Peter’s colonnade facing a 10-room education facility with a dining hall.
  • Planned operations feature solar-only power, a plastics ban, zero-waste measures, AI-guided irrigation, rainwater harvesting, and wastewater reuse.
  • The on-site vocational school will train vulnerable groups in sustainable gardening, organic winemaking, and olive harvesting, with sales reinvested in the center.
  • Director Rev. Manuel Dorantes says the site is in an initial phase without visitor dormitories, though trial school groups have visited and about a dozen trainees have secured jobs.
  • Pope Leo XIV is slated to open the center Friday, tour the grounds, and celebrate a staff liturgy, while officials have declined to disclose financing and partner details.