Writing from Castel Gandolfo, the Pope responds to a Roman reader’s question on faith and vacation with a call to reject consumerism and remember those who cannot rest.
Pope Leo XIV is spending his summer break at Castel Gandolfo through July 27. But the letter he published this week in the July-August issue of Piazza San Pietro — the monthly magazine of the Vatican Basilica directed by Father Enzo Fortunato — is not the voice of a man on holiday. It is that of a pastor thinking first about those for whom summer offers no relief at all.
The letter began, as these exchanges typically do, with a reader’s question. Maurizio, a Roman, wrote to the Pope asking how to live summer vacation not as “a break from daily routine” but as a genuine spiritual journey — a chance to slow down “the incessant and frenetic rhythm of daily life” and rediscover “a deeper dimension of his inner life.”
Leo XIV’s response, published Wednesday by Vatican News, opens with a turn toward those the question implicitly left out. The Pope says he thinks first “of the poor and all those who cannot even enjoy a brief period of rest, weighed down by difficulties of every kind.” He names them specifically: “the sick, those who have lost confidence in life, those overwhelmed by grief at the loss of loved ones, the victims of wars, hatred, terrorism and violence, those persecuted for their faith and for justice, prisoners, those who have been left without work, without a home, migrants who have not been welcomed.”
The list is characteristic of Leo — the same gaze he brought to Lampedusa earlier this month, the same that runs through Magnifica Humanitas. Before answering the question asked, he names the people the question forgot.
His answer to Maurizio, when it comes, is direct: “Use the summer season to live the Gospel of peace and mercy.” He reminds readers of “the privilege we have when we support the poor and bear witness to evangelical poverty. This is a service we render to Christ himself.” To families, his instruction is concrete and pointed: “Do not leave your elderly alone.” To volunteers: “Commit yourselves to bringing humanity and hope to those who suffer.”
On the question of how to live summer as a Christian, Leo is characteristically blunt about what to avoid. Vacation, he writes, should be “a space of suspension from occupations and concerns, in which one can live authentic experiences of friendship and sharing” — “a foretaste of that fraternity and communion that we can live and will live in the Kingdom of God.” But it must not become an occasion for “excesses and waste.” The Pope calls explicitly for rejecting “materialism and consumerism” and learning “sobriety.” His reasoning is theological as much as moral: “The accumulation of goods is an obstacle to evangelization.”
The letter closes with a passage that echoes his homily at the shrine of Pompei on May 8, which Leo quotes directly: “No earthly power will save the world.” Only, he continues, “the divine power of the love of Jesus” — and the human commitment not to “dissipate this precious patrimony of humanity and peace, the only hope capable of giving a future to a world threatened by war.”
The exchange is the latest in a series of reader responses Leo has contributed to Piazza San Pietro since the magazine launched in 2024 — a format he has taken up, like Pope Francis before him, as a regular form of pastoral outreach. The July-August issue is available now at the Vatican Basilica and through the magazine’s website.
