The church at Castel Gandolfo is shaped like a fan, its lines converging like the planks of a boat toward a cross that rises over the water, with the Alban Hills behind. On 29 August, Pope Leo XIV stood at its altar for the feast of Our Lady of the Lake and spoke about storms.
The Mass was at the Church of Maria Santissima del Lago, consecrated by Saint Paul VI in August 1977. Leo built his homily on the Gospel scene of Jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee while the disciples, terrified by the wind, struggled below. The Lord did not abandon them, the Pope said. He called them to faith and prayer, and they reached their destination in peace. Trials, Leo urged, should deepen trust rather than breed discouragement.
Love, and a refusal of hatred
From there he turned to what he called the essential path for Christians: love. Recalling the feeding of four thousand with seven loaves and a few fish, he noted that Jesus’ mission ended not in acclaim but in suffering, death and resurrection. He cited the call to deny oneself, take up the cross and follow, and invoked Saint Augustine, asking believers to scatter the seeds of infinite charity. Even Peter struggled with this teaching, the Pope observed.
The sharpest passage rejected hatred and violence outright. Hatred, even when it grows from a sense of injustice, produces only destruction and death, he warned, and the damage shows from family life to international affairs. Whatever wounds or offenses people carry, he said, they must not let evil bend their humanity. Life, hope, serenity and peace are needs of individuals, communities, peoples and nations alike. Faith, Leo suggested, offers a way to reconciliation in a world that often waves forgiveness off as weakness or naivety.
He also praised the local community for keeping the celebration alive, calling such inherited devotions meaningful ways to renew faith and a sign of a Church united in prayer.
A first on Lake Albano
After Mass, worshippers carried the statue of Our Lady of the Lake through the streets to the lakeside near the Tropicana establishment. There the procession moved onto the water of Lake Albano, and Leo became the first Pope to join it. He boarded the Falco, a vessel run by the Lungolago Castel Gandolfo Association, and accompanied the statue across the lake.
The tradition goes back to the years after the Second World War, when only a handful of families lived in the small lakeside community in Lazio.
