Around 15,000 people gathered in the Piazza Calipari in Acerra, Campania, to welcome Pope Leo XIV on Saturday, as he arrived to offer comfort to locals in the region known as the Terra dei Fuochi, or land of fires, a vast area in southern Italy devastated by decades of illegal dumping, burying and burning of waste.
The pontiff, greeted on his arrival by Undersecretary to the Prime Minister’s Office Alfredo Mantovano, chose to devote the first moments of the day to those left outside the Cathedral due to overcrowding, before moving inside.
Here, the Pope met with relatives of people who have lost their lives in the region, which has seen increased rates of cancer and pollution of groundwater.
“A short while ago, in the cathedral, I met some relatives of the victims of the pollution which, in recent decades, has sadly made this area known as the ‘Terra dei Fuochi’: an expression that does not do justice to the good that exists and endures, but which has certainly helped foster broad awareness of the seriousness of the criminal activity and the indifference that has left room for these crimes,” he said later.
Before leaving the Cathedral, the Pope called for a rethink of current economic and social models, urging those present to try to rediscover values centred on solidarity and respect for the land.
