Rome (CNS )fast a year after Pope Francis set up a commission to develop a large solar panel array on Vatican property outside of Rome, Pope Leo XIV visited the location and the Vatican employees working there.
On the 1,060 hectare area about 11 miles northwest of Rome is the shortwave broadcaster and the gear center of the Vatican radio.
The Vatican press office said that the Pope visited the property in Santa Maria di Galeria on June 19 together with Dicastery officials for communication and the governor of the Vatican City Council.
Pope Leo met the staff of the center and asked “the operation of the antennas, transmissions and the digital disaster restoration system,” the explanation said.
The day was the 43rd anniversary of his priestly ordination, which he and the staff celebrated with “light refreshments”, added the press office.
“Pope Leo emphasized how it was valuable during his mission work in Latin America and Africa to be able to receive the short -wave broadcasts of the Vatican Radio, where only a few stations can reach, and he confirmed the mission value of communication,” it said.
“When he blessed all of these present, he thanked them for the work they perform with loyalty and continuity, even on a festive day like today”, which is the feast of the body and blood of Christ in the Vatican. In Italy, however, the festival is transferred to June 22, the day on which Pope Leo celebrates the fair in the basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome and the Corpus of Christ's procession leads to the St. Mary Major basilica.
After the meeting with the staff, according to the press office, the Pope also moved the property in which “a project for an agrivoltaic plant is examined in order not only to ensure the power supply of the radio station, but also the complete energy supply of the state of the Vatican city”.
In a letter entitled “Brother Sun” and of June 21, 2024, Pope Francis wrote: “There is a need to make a transition to a model of sustainable development that reduces greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere and sets the goal of climate trophy.”
“Humanity has the technological means that are necessary to address this environmental transformation and its harmful ethical, social, economic and political consequences, and under these solar energy plays a key role,” he wrote.
Pope Francis appointed two special officers to prepare the agrivoltaic system, which consists of a number of solar collectors that coexist with plants, cattle or both.