At Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo XIV presided over the Holy Mass for the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

In Mary is our destiny

“When in this life we ‘choose life’ (cf. Dt 30:19), then in Mary, assumed into Heaven, we have reason to see our destiny. She is given to us as the sign that the Resurrection of Jesus was not an isolated event, an exception. All of us, in Christ, can swallow up death (cf. 1 Cor 15:54).” Thus spoke Pope Leo XIV during the concelebrated Eucharist in the Pontifical Parish of St. Thomas of Villanova (Castel Gandolfo) on Friday morning, August 15, on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The community gathered in large numbers around the church of St. Thomas of Villanova. More than two thousand people assembled from the early hours of dawn in Piazza della Libertà, where an audio-video system had been set up to allow everyone to follow the celebration and listen to the Pope’s words.

At the conclusion of the Mass, the parish offered the Pope a symbolic gift: a reproduction of the painting depicting St. Thomas of Villanova, located on the right side altar of the church.

After the celebration, the Pope went out onto the church parvis to greet the faithful present, warmly thanking them for their affection. Shortly afterward, he returned to the Apostolic Palace for the recitation of the Angelus in which he recalled the words of Dante Alighieri, evoking the final invocation addressed to the Virgin in the closing canto of the Paradiso, entrusted to the voice of St. Bernard.

Among those present at the concelebration were the Director of the Pontifical Villas, Mr. Andrea Tamburelli, and Father Gabriele Gionti. S.J., Deputy Director of the Vatican Observatory.

Pope Leo XIV had arrived at the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 13, welcomed, among others, by the President of the Governorate, Sister Raffaella Petrini, by Director Tamburelli, and by the staff of the Directorate of the Pontifical Villas.