June 17-19, 2026, Borgo Laudato Si'

The Inaugural Borgo Dialogues

An Exclusive Gathering to Advance Courageous Leadership and Common Good

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EVENT OVERVIEW:

The Borgo Dialogues is a global leadership initiative of the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education, developed in collaboration with Handshake Strategies and Deloitte AG to advance courageous leadership and the common good.

Rooted in more than a decade of work inspired by Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ Encyclical Letter of the same name, the project calls for a renewed commitment to caring for our common home. The Dialogues carry forward this vision to advance courageous leadership and common good by convening leaders dedicated to shaping a more humane and sustainable future.

The inaugural gathering will take place at Borgo Laudato Si’, a 135-acre landscape of gardens, farmland and archaeological heritage at Castel Gandolfo, the historical summer residence of the Pope. The grounds serve as a living laboratory for integral ecology – an environment designed to foster healing, unity and advance deeper human understanding and collective care for our common home.

Brought together in partnership with Handshake and Deloitte, the Borgo Dialogues will assemble a distinguished cohort of global executives, influencers and high-impact decision-makers across diverse industries to address the world’s most formidable challenges through moral clarity, intellectual rigor, and practical action.

The three-day program of the Borgo Dialogues will explore the defining issues shaping our shared future, bringing leaders into the kind of cross-sector dialogue that strengthens conviction, sharpens judgement and calls forth courageous leadership.
Discussions will center on three pillars of courageous leadership:

  1. AI & Humanity
  2. Aging & Dignity
  3. Sports & Diplomacy

Through immersive sessions, cross-sector collaboration, and guided reflection on the sacred grounds of the Borgo Laudato Si’, participants will examine how courageous leadership can translate vision into action. The gathering will culminate in a private Audience with His Holiness Pope Leo in Vatican City, underscoring the moral and global significance of the work ahead.

View the Schedule

BACKGROUND:
The Borgo and The Laudato Si’

In February 2023, Pope Francis established the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education (Centro di Alta Formazione Laudato Si’) as a scientific, educational, and social institution entrusted with advancing the Church’s vision for ecological responsibility and human dignity. Central to this mission was the creation of Borgo Laudato Si’, an ecological and vocational center designed to cultivate leaders who integrate care for creation with the common good.

Located just beyond the borders of Vatican City on the historic papal grounds of Castel Gandolfo, the Borgo spans nearly 136 acres of gardens, farmland, livestock areas, greenhouses, and archaeological heritage. Once reserved exclusively for papal use, the estate has gradually opened to the world – first by Pope Francis and later expanded under Pope Leo XIV – reflecting a shared commitment to welcome visitors of every background and tradition.

In 2025, Pope Leo XIV inaugurated a new chapter for the Borgo, inviting international delegations, academic institutions, diocesan groups, and vulnerable communities to experience its model firsthand. Guided visits through the landscape, educational center and marketplace allow guests to encounter the principles of Laudato Si’ as a lived practice. The grounds also retain their spiritual character: visitors may pray, reflect, and walk paths used by generations of Popes.

The Borgo’s programming draws on three Pontifical Encyclicals – Laudato Si’ (Francis, 2015), Fratelli Tutti (Francis, 2020), and Magnifica Humanitas (Leo XIV, 2026) – woven together as a unified framework for courageous leadership and the common good. The newly built Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education will offer courses in sustainable practices, organic agriculture, and ecological decision-making for individuals, communities, and institutions.

Following two years of preparation and piloting, the Borgo’s full programming began in 2026. Guided by Pope Leo XIV, it now brings together global leaders, the private sector, investors, and entrepreneurs to cultivate communities of practice dedicated to a shared future – one rooted in moral clarity, ecological responsibility, and the dignity of every person. Visitors and participants are encouraged to carry forward this spirit into their families, workplace, and communities, advancing a culture of care for our common home.

Explore The Grounds

Schedule & Programming

The three-day program explores three thematic sessions – AI & Humanity, Aging & Dignity, and Sports & Diplomacy – held within a single cross-cutting frame of Future & Sustainability: what world are we building, and who will inherit it? 

The Dialogues conclude with a private Audience with His Holiness Pope Leo XIV in Rome – not a conclusion, but a sending.

Schedule subject to change.

  • DAY ONE — Wednesday, June 1

    8:00 AM – 2:00 PM
    Arrivals to Rome

    3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
    Shuttles from Rome to the Borgo

    4:00 PM – 4:30 PM
    Arrivals

    4:30 PM-6:00 PM
    Tour of Borgo Laudato Si’

    6:00 PM
    Reception and Inaugural Dinner with Borgo Leadership

    6:15 PM
    Welcome & Blessing
    Fr. Manny Dorantes, Director of Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education

    6:30 PM
    Vision and Overview — The Laudato Si’: Common Good, Common Home, Common Future
    Led by Cardinal Fabio Baggio, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Sr. Alessandra Smerilli, Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, and Carlo Giardinetti, Sustainability Lead and Leadership Senior Advisor Deloitte.

    Drawing on a decade of work inspired by three Pontifical Encyclicals, this session frames the gathering as a rare opportunity for leaders across sectors to engage directly with the principles of Laudato Si’, Fratelli Tutti, and Magnifica Humanitas — and to contribute to decisions that shape the world.  

    7:15 PM
    Courageous Leadership, Calling & Dialogue as a Catalyst for Change
    Led by Fr. Dan Groody, vice president and associate provost for undergraduate education and professor of theology and global affairs at the University of Notre Dame and member Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and JR Kerr, CEO Handshake Strategies.  

    7:45 PM
    Dinner

  • DAY TWO — Thursday, June 18

    8:30 AM
    Mass in the Garden of our Lady followed by coffee & refreshments

    9:45 AM
    Coffee & Refreshments

    10:00 AM-12:00 PM
    Session I – AI & The Human Race
    This session explores human-first frameworks for artificial intelligence, grounded in Magnifica Humanitas. The focus is on moral architecture, governance, and the responsibility of builders, deployers, and capital allocators to expand — not concentrate — human agency and opportunity.

    12:00 PM-2:00 PM
    Session II – Sports & Diplomacy
    This session block explores sport as a bridge for peacebuilding, youth engagement, economic mobility, and cross-cultural understanding. Leaders from leagues, finance, media, and civic institutions will examine sport’s capacity to build social capital and civic trust.

    2:00 PM-4:00 PM
    Lunch & Participant Dialogue

    2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
    Session II – Aging & Dignity
    This session is grounded in Grounded in Fratelli Tutti and Laudato Si’ and asks what it would mean to build organizations, systems, and economies oriented toward the conditions in which people genuinely thrive — not managing the cost of human decline for those who cannot pay.

    4:30 PM – 6:30 PM
    Session III – Sports & Diplomacy
    This session explores sport as a bridge for peacebuilding, youth engagement, economic mobility, and cross-cultural understanding — asking whether the institutional weight of sport builds genuine trust across borders, or launders division behind the appearance of fraternity. 

    6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
    Reception & Reflections
    Cross-track synthesis: the shared question beneath AI, Sport, and Health. Participant reflections, Fr. Dan Groody on courageous leadership in action, and closing remarks from Cardinal Baggio.

  • DAY THREE — Friday, June 19

    9:30 AM – 12:00 PM
    Private Audience with His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, Vatican City

EXPLORE:
Castel Gandolfo, Italy

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