Pope feeds fish and pats horses as he opens Vatican’s sustainable farming centre

Pope Leo XIV at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, on Friday (Filippo Monteforte, Pool via AP)

Pope Leo fed fish in the fishpond, patted horses and visited organic vineyards on Friday as he inaugurated the Vatican’s ambitious project to turn Pope Francis’s preaching about caring for the environment into practice.

Leo formally opened Borgo Laudato Si’, a 55-acre utopian experiment in sustainable farming, vocational training and environmental education located in the grounds of the papal summer retreat in Castel Gandolfo.