• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Lake Albano is seen from a window of the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Papal farm, gardens will be home to new center promoting sustainability

February 3, 2023
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Environment, Feature, News, Vatican, World News

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The papal property at Castel Gandolfo, with its vast gardens and diverse livestock, will now be the home of a new scientific and educational center dedicated to promoting integral ecology, sustainability, and a circular and generative economy.

Pope Francis established the new Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education Feb. 2 because he wanted “to make a tangible contribution to the development of ecological education by opening a new space for training and raising awareness,” the Vatican City governor’s office said in a written news release.

The initiative, called the “Borgo Laudato Si'” project, will have “the beauty of the Villa Barberini gardens and the papal villas as the natural setting for developing a center for education in integral ecology, open to all people of goodwill,” it said.

The sun rises over Lake Albano in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. The papal retreat overlooks the volcanic lake. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Planned activities and initiatives will be announced in the coming months, it said; they will aim to “combine training in integral ecology, circular and generative economy, and environmental sustainability,” it said.

According to the “chirograph” or brief papal document establishing the center, the center will be “placed under (the pope’s) personal attention” and managed and run by its own governing bodies and staff.

The pope appointed: Scalabrinian Father Fabio Baggio, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, to be the center’s new director general; Salesian Sister Alessandra Smerilli, secretary of the dicastery, and Francesca Romana Busnelli as members of the board of directors; and Antonio Errigo as secretary.

According to its new statutes, the center will actively seek ways to involve young people and those who are marginalized as well as the general public.

Its papal mandate focuses on developing specific projects that foster people’s holistic development and that promote education and training in economic and environmental sustainability, inspired by the principles in pope’s 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home.”

In addition to sponsoring events, seminars, conferences and study weeks, it also will organize visits for the general public that highlight “the natural, cultural and scientific patrimony” of the papal property, according to its statutes.

Beyond research and education, the center’s activities also can include cultural events, “hospitality” and food services, utilizing traditional and advanced agricultural methods, and continuing the papal farm’s activities of “animal husbandry” and producing dairy products.

The papal property at Castel Gandolfo extends over 135 acres — compared to the 108.7 acres of Vatican City. It includes 74 acres of gardens — 17 of which are formal gardens — 62 acres of farmland, three residences and a farm with chickens, hens, rabbits, assorted fowl, cows and a small dairy operation. There are fruit and olive orchards, vineyards, hayfields, vegetable patches, aromatic herbs, flowerbeds and plants that often are used to decorate the papal apartments and meeting rooms at the Vatican.

Pope Pius XI established the farm in the 1930s to be “a model of a genuine lifestyle, the same he was able to enjoy as a youth,” the Vatican newspaper reported in 2011, and to make use of the fertile pastures — which had been abandoned after the loss of the Papal States in 1870 — to provide fresh fare for the papal menu.

Read More Environment

Biden administration proposes steps aimed at reducing ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water

Vatican, environmental institute release action guide for sustainability

‘Wonder’ film series shows faith, science not at war, says Bishop Barron

Interreligious dialogue leads to care for planet, pope tells Buddhists

Catholic agencies in California organize outreach, relief for storm victims amid historic rainfall

Catholics in the Amazon hope COP15 generates projects in favor of forest

Copyright © 2023 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Carol Glatz

Catholic News Service is a leading agency for religious news. Its mission is to report fully, fairly and freely on the involvement of the church in the world today.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Archdiocese dispenses with meatless obligation for St. Patrick’s Day
  • Pathfinders: Five Archdiocese of Baltimore women who made history
  • Trainor to retire from post as Mount St. Mary’s president in 2024
  • Movie Review: ’65’
  • Sister Mary Kathleen Marie Saffa dies at 86

| Latest Local News |

Sister Joan Cooper, O.S.F., dies at 94

Pathfinders: Five Archdiocese of Baltimore women who made history

Sister Elizabeth Ellen Kane, O.S.F., dies at 81

| Latest World News |

Church calls for ‘international protection of holy sites’ after attack on church at Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Jerusalem

Papal message to focus on people’s right not to migrate

Medically changing person’s sex characteristics to those of opposite sex ‘not morally justified,’ say bishops

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Church calls for ‘international protection of holy sites’ after attack on church at Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Jerusalem
  • Sister Joan Cooper, O.S.F., dies at 94
  • Papal message to focus on people’s right not to migrate
  • Medically changing person’s sex characteristics to those of opposite sex ‘not morally justified,’ say bishops
  • Pope Francis is praised in U.N. talks for efforts to combat anti-Muslim prejudice
  • Pathfinders: Five Archdiocese of Baltimore women who made history
  • Legendary communist-era priest, Father Blachnicki, was murdered, Polish authorities confirm
  • Do not be afraid to be a witness to God’s love, pope says
  • Question Corner: Jesus became man so I could become God?

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED