Pope Leo’s address to a meeting with the mayors and faithful
of the municipalities of the “Land of Fires”
Piazza Calipari (Acerra) – Saturday, 23 May 2026
The European court of human rights last year validated a generation of residents’ complaints that mafia dumping, burial and burning of toxic waste led to an increased rate of cancer and other ailments in the area of 90 municipalities around Caserta and Naples,
encompassing a population of 2.9 million people.
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Dear brothers and sisters,
I greet the Authorities and thank all those who have collaborated in preparing today’s meeting. Thank you all for being here!
I am happy to spend this Saturday morning with you, revisiting a region whose beauty no injustice can erase.
In life, we understand that the more fragile beauty is, the more care and responsibility it requires.
Dear friends, this is the main reason for my presence in Acerra today: to support and encourage the leap of dignity and responsibility that every honest heart experiences when life begins and is immediately threatened by death.
Those who have faith will understand that this leap comes from God the Creator,
who seeks cooperators in His life projects in every man and woman.
A little while ago, in the cathedral, I met some family members of the victims of the pollution that has sadly made this area known as the “Land of Fires”.
This expression does not do justice to the good that exists and persists, but it has certainly raised widespread awareness of the seriousness of the malfeasance and indifference that has enabled crimes.
I wanted to thank the bishops, priests, deacons, religious men and women and lay people who quickly embraced the message of the Encyclical “Laudato si” and Pope Francis’ constant invitation to be an outgoing, missionary, synodal church.
The Lord asks us to walk together, overcome self-referentiality, and dare to prophesy despite resistance and threats, and his Spirit inspires us to do so.
In this territory, in fact, there is life and death coexists.
Justice exists and will prevail.
It is necessary, of course, to choose life and free oneself from the bonds of death.
There is always a subtle convenience in resignation, compromises and postponing necessary and courageous decisions.
Fatalism, complaining and blaming others are the breeding grounds of illegality and the beginning of desertification of consciences.
That is why I would like to say to all of you, “Let us each take responsibility, choose justice, and serve life!”
The common good comes before the interests of a few, whether they are small or large
This land has paid a high price.
It has buried many of its children and witnessed the suffering of the innocent.
The weight of that pain requires us to come together and bear witness to a new pact.
You are entering a time of rebirth—not repression, but ethical action and active memory.
It is time for a contemplative gaze, as called for by the encyclical “Laudato Si”, which invites all human beings to take responsibility for their actions.
Pope Francis wrote “Ecological culture cannot be reduced to a series of urgent and partial responses to the problems that arise regarding environmental degradation, the depletion of natural reserves and pollution. It should be a different outlook, a thought, a policy, an educational program, a lifestyle and a spirituality that give shape to a resistance in the face of the advance of the technocratic paradigm”.
Brothers and sisters, that same paradigm is still winning today.
It is the root of the proliferation of conflicts, which stem from the competition to hoard resources.
We see it rear its head whenever those in political and institutional positions are too weak to stand up to the powerful.
We see it in technological development that aims for the dizzying profits of a few while ignoring people, their work, and their future.
For this reason, if we are to change, it must start with how we see things.
Some say that leaving a better world for our children has become an ambitious goal.
However, the mission to raise better children must not be overlooked.
The commitment to education is within our reach and must be a priority.
We must educate young people, adults, children, the elderly, citizens, their leaders, workers, employers, and the faithful and their pastors.
We all have more to learn.
Everyone has something to give, but first, they must learn to receive.
Admitting this is difficult, but it is the beginning of the future.
It is like a door that opens to what we have not yet thought, believed, or loved enough.
Learning again is what makes us a community.
For Christians, it means “making way” with Jesus by becoming better disciples at every stage of life.
Dear friends,
It will be a real change in economic, civil and even religious mentality to build the foundation for healing this earth and the entire planet.
It is necessary to consolidate and expand the pact between people, institutions, and public and private organizations that is already bearing its first fruits on the educational and social levels.
This pact will not only thwart criminal alliances, but also connect and multiply the best ideas and forces that are already in your hearts.
I would like to thank the courageous individuals who were the first to denounce the evils of this land and bring attention to its obscured and denied reality of poisoning.
In particular, I am thinking of the members of environmental associations.
We all know that we must be vigilant about the health of our planet.
We must reject the temptations of power and enrichment that are linked to polluting practices.
Step by step, but quickly, we will realize a less individualistic economy and a less consumerist system.
How much waste and poison has come from a growth model that has bewitched us, leaving us sicker and poorer?
So let’s learn to be rich differently.
Let’s be more attentive to relationships, more focused on enhancing the common good, more fond of our territory, and more grateful in welcoming and integrating those who come to live with us.
Good community practices can be built on the basis of this conversion through people and businesses that cultivate a sense of limitation instead of irresponsible violation, a taste for recovery instead of the logic of invasion, and a hunger and thirst for justice instead of possession.
Being close to the human heart, and therefore closer to God, who created it, means desiring a more inclusive and united community that is less affected by marginalization and polarization.
However, the path forward is narrow because it begins with us and where we are.
Correcting our course means acting every day to change our habits and prejudices, and seeing beyond our fences. This is how we meet each other.
It is sometimes an uphill and poorly marked path.
For example, the name “Land of Fires” refers to the fires lit on the outskirts of cities by marginalized minorities.
Few people know about or esteem these minorities.
Marginalization always produces insecurity.
The best way to combat it is to fight the marginalization, not the marginalized.
It is better to break the entire chain than to hit only the last link.
You know this well! In this Jubilee Year of St. Francis, patron saint of Italy, the Poverello of Assisi reminds us that peace is based on caring for others and fraternity.
