Pope in Acerra: A pastoral embrace for a wounded land seeking renewal

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 organised 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 incompetency 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 centre 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.

Pope Leo returned again and again to the image of the Church 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 “craftsmen of the common good.”

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 “clean hands and a transparent heart”, calling on citizens to confront corruption, to steward public resources responsibly, and to protect the weakest, especially children and the elderly.

The Pope 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, an ensuring that clean-up efforts are thorough, transparent, and scientifically credible.

“Creation is not a warehouse to be emptied,” he said, “but a gift entrusted to our care.”

He 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.