Pope Entrusts World and Wounded Children to Mary During Lake Albano Procession

Historic Boat Journey Across Lake Albano

Pope Leo XIV marked a first for the papacy by traveling across the waters of Lake Albano during a traditional Marian procession. According to EWTN News, the Vatican confirmed he is the first pope to travel by boat across the lake during the Feast of Our Lady of the Lake. The town of Castel Gandolfo has hosted the papal summer residence since the early 17th century, featuring a palace that overlooks the roughly 2-square-mile volcanic crater lake.

The procession followed a Mass celebrated by the pope at the Church of Maria Santissima del Lago. Following the service, the Holy Father boarded the vessel Falco, which was decorated with yellow and white flowers, to cross the lake alongside a statue of the Virgin Mary. The 25-minute journey included an accompanying flotilla of canoes carrying young people who had taken part in the Castel Gandolfo championships, dragon boats, and other vessels.

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Prayers for Peace and Wounded Children on the Lakeshore

Before the Pope’s arrival, Salesian novices led the faithful in prayer and song as they waited on the lakeshore. They sang hymns, including Eccomi, and read passages from the Gospel, interspersed with moments of meditation and prayer. People gathered along the shore, on beach loungers and pedal boats, waiting to see the Pope, with many pilgrims recording the moment on their phones.

Pope Leo stepped ashore to applause while tenor Aurelio Grimaldi and his wife, Elena Kovalova, performed La Vergine degli angeli from Verdi’s La forza del destino, followed by César Franck’s Panis Angelicus. They were accompanied on the piano by Maestro Massimiliano Franchina. As the sun set over Lake Albano, the Pope concluded the Marian procession with a prayer of supplication for a world marked by war, suffering and division, entrusting the Church and the peoples of the world to Mary, whom he described as a woman of listening and service.

“To your loving protection,” Pope Leo reassured, “we entrust all the peoples of the earth: look with kindness upon your children wounded by war and encourage in everyone the desire for peace.”

Pope Leo XIV

Public Life, Dignity, and the Common Good

Promoting justice and dignity, Pope Leo prayed for those who are suffering and for those who have a responsibility to care for others. Where hatred grows, teach us forgiveness; where fear prevails, restore hope, he prayed, asking Mary to look with particular care upon children, the elderly, the sick, families, young people, and all those who live in loneliness.

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The Pope asked Mary to support those who have responsibility in public life, so that they may always promote justice, freedom, the dignity of every person and the common good. He also remembered those who live and work around the lake and those who come there in search of peace, expressing hope that each person might rediscover the path that leads to Christ.

The faithful, local authorities, and mayors wearing the Italian tricolor sash listened to the Pope’s prayer in silence. Long live the Pope! pilgrims called out as he concluded to a long applause, before the Castel Gandolfo marching band began to play to mark the tenth anniversary of its foundation this year. As evening fell and Lake Albano was gradually covered in darkness, the Pope left the lakeshore for his waiting car, leaving the faithful with the memory of an evening of prayer for peace.