Pope in Acerra: A pastoral embrace for a wounded land seeking renewal
By Linda Bordoni
Pope Leo XIV travelled to Acerra on Saturday, bringing closeness and a message of moral clarity, as well as practical encouragement to a community that has long suffered from environmental degradation and organized criminality.
Acerra, in the southern Italian Campania region, is part of a deeply scarred territory, devastated by environmental degradation due to illegal rubbish dumping and the unchecked burning of toxic waste.
The town of 65,000 residents is at the heart of the so-called “Terra dei Fuochi”. or 'Land of Fires', a territory also known as "The Triangle of Death", which for the past 20 years has been suffocated by toxic fires burning the contaminated land. This has given rise to a health crisis in which hundreds of people, including many children, have developed rare forms of cancer, without help from the institutions, which have been accused of incompetence and corruption.
In Pope Leo’s discourse to the clergy and the faithful gathered in the city’s Cathedral, he invited families, workers, young people, and civic leaders to “walk together,” placing human dignity at the center of every choice while resisting resignation in the face of entrenched injustices.
He urged the faithful to make room for prayer that becomes service and for a faith courageous enough to touch the wounds of society.
The image of the Church as a field hospital
Pope Leo returned to the image of the Church that Pope Francis, who had desired to undertake this visit, described as a “field hospital,” called to bind wounds with patience and to persevere in the small, daily gestures that restore trust: honest work, clean governance, and a culture that protects life from its beginning to its natural end.
He praised the quiet heroism of parents and grandparents who keep families together amid economic strain, and he asked young people not to abandon their homeland to despair but to become artisans of the common good.
Call for the conversion of the heart
The people of Acerra, and across the Campania region, contend with unemployment, a persistent informal economy, and outward migration that drains towns of their youngest and most enterprising citizens. Many families live on precarious contracts and seasonal wages; small businesses are squeezed by rising costs and uneven investment; and civil society often must step in where services are thin.
In this context, the Pope appealed for administrative and political conversion of the heart, calling on citizens to confront corruption, to steward public resources responsibly, and to protect the weakest, especially children and the elderly.
Heeding the cry of the earth and of the poor
Recalling the late Pope Francis' landmark encyclical Laudato sì, Pope Leo did not shy away from addressing the environmental emergency in the area and insisted on the need for a shared moral responsibility: breaking the cycle of silence, strengthening lawful enterprise, and ensuring that clean-up efforts are thorough, transparent, and scientifically credible.
He reiterated that creation is a gift entrusted to our care, and urged collaboration between Church communities, public institutions, universities, and honest businesses to monitor, remediate, and rebuild, so that the land may again breathe and families may remain rooted in dignity.
A path of conversion and civic friendship
Drawing from today's reading by Ezekiel, the Pope proposed a path that joins interior conversion with civic friendship in which the poor are placed at the center and parish and diocesan resources are directed toward families in difficulty, the unemployed, and those living with illness.
He mentioned the need to foster a lawful culture of work, while education and memory, he said, are crucial, as he invited the faith to pray so that fatigue does not harden into bitterness but is renewed as patient love.
He thanked priests, religious, and lay volunteers who remain close to people in their struggles, and he encouraged public officials who serve without serving themselves.
Do not let anyone steal your tomorrow, the Pope urged the young people of the area, inviting them to rediscover the beauty of their land - its families, faith, and culture - and to become protagonists of a new chapter in its future.
