Vatican releases programmes of Pope Leo's pastoral visits in Italy

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

As Italy celebrates April 25 as "Liberation Day," the Holy See Press Office published several programmes of Pope Leo XIV's upcoming pastoral visits to various Italian cities.

The Pope will begin the Italian tour in Pompeii and Naples on May 8, the one-year anniversary of his election as Pope.

He will start the day at the Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii, a pilgrimage destination for four Popes and millions of people who gather together to pray the Supplication to the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii twice a year, in May and November.

St. Bartolo Longo, whom Pope Leo canonized in October 2025, founded the Shrine and wrote the prayer that is used during this Supplication. The Pope will pray this same prayer after presiding at Mass.

Pope Leo will stay for lunch in the city before heading to Naples in the afternoon, where he will meet with the clergy and religious in the Cathedral, venerate the relics of San Gennaro, and meet with people of Naples gathered in Piazza del Plebiscito.

Less than a week later, the Holy Father will make a pastoral visit to La Sapienza University in Rome on May 14.

Later that month, on May 23, on the eve of the anniversary of the publication of Pope Francis' landmark encyclical on the environment Laudato sì, Pope Leo will travel to the southern Italian town of Acerra, located in the notorious “Land of Fires,” an area between Naples and Caserta known for illegal disposal of toxic waste and burning of plastic and industrial materials.

Due to a high mortality rate linked to environmental pollution, international scientific journals have called Acerra, along with two other Italian towns, the "Triangle of Death."

The following month, on June 20, Pope Leo, the first Augustinian Pope, will visit the city of Pavia, where, since 722, St. Augustine’s remains have rested in the Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro.

Before traveling to the Basilica, the Pope will visit the National Center for Oncological Hadrontherapy (CNAO), where he will meet executives, medical staff, and children undergoing treatment with their parents. 

The National Center for Oncological Hadrontherapy is the only centre in Italy that uses hadrontherapy with both protons and carbon ions to treat tumors, one of only six similar facilities around the world.

On July 4, the Pope will travel to the Italian island of Lampedusa, showing his closeness to migrants, as his predecessor Pope Francis had done visiting the Sicilian island, as the first pastoral visit of his pontificate.

The Pope will also be traveling to Assisi and Rimini in August, but the programmes for these Italian visits were not yet released by the Press Office on Saturday.