Pope Leo XIV on Saturday, May 23, 2026, condemned corporate greed and environmental abuse during a pastoral visit to Acerra in southern Italy, warning against decades of impunity linked to toxic waste dumping in the region known as the “Land of Fires”.
Speaking in the town about 220 kilometres south of Rome, the pontiff met residents who gathered with Vatican flags and photographs of relatives believed to have died from pollution-related illnesses.
He said he had come to share in their suffering and acknowledge years of environmental neglect.
Leo criticised what he described as the pursuit of “dizzying profits” at the expense of human life and the environment, saying such practices had allowed widespread pollution to persist without accountability.
The “Land of Fires”, part of Italy’s broader “Triangle of Death”, has for years been associated with illegal dumping and burning of industrial waste, with investigations linking parts of the trade to organized crime networks, including Camorra-linked groups around Naples.
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In January 2025, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Italian authorities had failed for decades to protect residents from illegal waste dumping, noting that risks had been known since at least 1988.
The court ordered Italy to establish a comprehensive national database of contaminated sites and improve public access to environmental risk information within two years, setting a compliance deadline of January 2027.
Following the ruling, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in February 2025 appointed a senior military official to head a national task force on environmental remediation and victim support.
During his four-hour visit on Saturday, May 23, 2026, Pope Leo met families affected by cancer and other serious illnesses linked to toxic exposure, offering prayers and solidarity.
The visit comes ahead of the Vatican’s release of his first major encyclical on Monday, May 25, 2026, expected to focus on artificial intelligence, including its use in warfare and its impact on labour and human dignity.