Pope Leo criticises polluters during visit to Italy’s toxic waste zone

ROME: Pope Leo on Saturday denounced companies and networks that pursue huge profits while damaging the environment, as he visited Acerra in southern Italy, an area long associated with illegal toxic waste dumping.

The pope travelled to the town, around 220 kilometres south of Rome, and used the visit to urge people to turn away from practices that harm the environment and communities. Speaking in the area near Naples known as the Land of Fires, he said the world must

reject temptations of power and enrichment linked to practices that pollute the land, water, air, and social coexistence

.

Leo said he had wanted to come to the area to meet families affected by pollution-related illness and loss. He said he was there to

gather the tears

of relatives who had lost loved ones to diseases linked to the dumping crisis.

Residents welcomed the pontiff as he arrived by popemobile in an outdoor square under sunny skies. People waved small yellow-and-white Vatican flags and wore yellow hats, while some held placards bearing photographs of family members who had died.

Warnings over impunity and profit

During the four-hour visit, Pope Leo said those responsible for environmental harm had been able to operate without consequences for too long. He said "unscrupulous people and organisations have been allowed to act with impunity for too long".

He also criticised what he described as

the dizzying profits of a few, blind to the needs of people, their work and their future

. The pope also met victims during the visit.

Waste collection, treatment and disposal in southern Italy had for years been controlled largely by a small group of private operators, with some contracts linked to the Camorra, the mafia organisation based around Naples.

European court ruling and government response

The visit came after the European Court of Human Rights ruled last year that authorities had failed to protect residents from waste dumping in the area since at least 1988. In January 2025, the court found that Italian authorities had repeatedly failed to stop illegal dumping in the region, which is also known as the Triangle of Death because of unusually high cancer rates among local residents.

The court gave the Italian government two years to create a comprehensive database of toxic waste sites and inform the public about the risks.

In response, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni appointed an Italian general in February 2025 to lead a task force focused on helping victims and advancing environmental clean-up efforts.

Major Vatican document due Monday

In recent months, Pope Leo has adopted a more forceful public tone. He is due to issue his first encyclical on Monday, a major document addressed to the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics. The text is expected to deal with the growth of artificial intelligence and concerns over its use in warfare as well as its impact on workers’ rights.