Pope Leo has called out companies who seek "dizzying" profits at the cost of environmental pollution on a visit to an area in Italy known as a hotbed for illegal dumping of toxic waste.
On a visit to Acerra, south of Rome, the first US pope urged the world to "reject temptations of power and enrichment linked to practices that pollute the land, water, air, and social coexistence".
Leo said he wanted to come to the area near Naples known as the "Land of Fires", where the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2025 that authorities had failed to protect residents from waste dumping since at least 1988, to "gather the tears" of families who had lost loves ones to related illnesses.
