Pope Leo XIV will visit ground zero of Europe’s migration drama, the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, and also minister to Italians poisoned by years of toxic dumping by the mafia, according to travel plans announced on Thursday by the Vatican. Source: Crux.
The Vatican released Leo’s agenda for day trips to a half-dozen Italian cities over the next six months. The Vatican has rarely released such plans together and so far in advance, but word of the visits was starting to filter out.
The busy itinerary, which will take Leo up and down the Italian peninsula, is in addition to plans for some intense foreign travel in 2026.
There are plans under study for a four-nation trip to Africa after Easter that would take Leo to Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, Angola and Cameroon. Leo has said he hoped to visit his beloved Peru, as well as Argentina and Uruguay, trips that could happen toward the end of the year.
History’s first US-born pope was unable to leave Rome during his first year as pontiff because of the busy 2025 Holy Year, which drew millions of pilgrims to the Vatican for special Masses and papal audiences.
With the Jubilee behind him, he Pope can now travel more easily: He has begun a series of parish visits within his Roman diocese each Sunday throughout Lent, the period leading up to Easter.
Pope Leo’s travels begin on May 8 with a visit to the Naples and the nearby ancient city of Pompeii. He’ll return to the region later that month, on May 23, to meet with the faithful of Acerra. The area is known as the “Land of Fires,” for the years of toxic-waste dumping by the local mafia that has led to increased rates of cancer and other ailments for its residents.
Leo will go north to Pavia, near Milan, on June 20. The tomb of St Augustine is located in a Pavia basilica, suggesting the visit will be of great personal importance to a pope who has described himself as a son of the fifth-century saint.
On July 4, Pope Leo will travel to Lampedusa, an Italian island closer to Africa than to the Italian mainland. Pope Francis had made Lampedusa his first trip outside Rome after his 2013 election to show solidarity with migrants who landed there after being smuggled from north Africa.
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Pope’s grand tour of Italy over the next few months takes him to Lampedusa and beyond (By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press, via Crux)
