Pope Leo XIV spent July 11 at Castel Gandolfo with around 200 guests from the Diocese of Rome, including nearly 40 children, for a lunch set inside the Pontifical Gardens of Castel Gandolfo. The gathering brought people experiencing social vulnerability into direct contact with the pope and placed charity, access and welcome at the center of the day.
He told the guests he came with “hunger for justice, hunger for genuine charity, hunger for a Church that truly knows how to open its doors, to welcome and receive everyone; where there is love for all and no one is an enemy, where all of us know how to live reconciliation, forgiveness and peace,” and said he wanted to build “a bridge” with them and with the society they want to live in. He added that society should be marked by justice, where the causes of poverty can be eliminated and the causes of injustices overcome.
Laudato Si’ Center at Castel Gandolfo
The lunch took place at the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education in the Pontifical Gardens of Castel Gandolfo. Earlier in the day, Cardinal Fabio Baggio celebrated Mass, and Archbishop Luis Marín de San Martín concelebrated it before the meal began.
Cardinal Fabio Baggio said Borgo Laudato si’ was created to show that the care of creation and the care of the human person are one and the same mission. Archbishop Luis Marín de San Martín said the Holy Father’s choice confirms that charity consists of closeness, encounter and sharing, putting the July 11 meal inside a larger pattern rather than treating it as a stand-alone gesture.
Diocese of Rome guests
The Vatican said the guests came from the Diocese of Rome and that the annual invitation will extend to people living in situations of poverty, refugees, migrants, and others experiencing social vulnerability. That gives the lunch a practical structure: a diocesan invite list, a garden setting, Mass first, then the meal with Pope Leo XIV, rather than a public reception open to anyone who arrives.
The event also carried the weight of Pope Leo XIV’s own framing of the Church’s task. He said he came with hunger for justice and a Church that opens its doors, then linked that message to a society in which the causes of poverty and injustices can be overcome. The setting in Castel Gandolfo made that statement visible, but it also placed the promise beside the reality of the people the Church says it is trying to serve.
Social vulnerability at the center
That is the unresolved edge of the day. The lunch presented the Church as welcoming and bridge-building, while the same account says it is responding to poverty and injustices that still exist in the world. The guests did not come for a speech alone; they were brought into the Pontifical Gardens for shared time with the pope, and the source’s annual-tradition plan suggests this is meant to continue as a recurring encounter.
The July 11 meal therefore works as both a gesture and a test. It shows how Pope Leo XIV wants the See of Peter to meet people in vulnerable situations, and it leaves one practical question hanging for the next invitation: which specific diocesan guests or organizations will be included when the pattern repeats.
