The first Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal, established by Villanova University, Pennsylvania (USA), where Pope Leo XIV graduated in Mathematics in 1977, has been presented to Card. Michael Czerny SJ, Prefect Emeritus of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. The medal, which recognizes a commitment to sustainability, social justice and care for our common home, was presented by Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA, President of Villanova University.
The ceremony at Borgo Laudato Si’ was part of the Villanova University International Sustainability Conference 2026, on the theme, “Responding to the Cry of the Earth and of the Poor”, held in Rome from 12 to 15 October. The event, supported by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DPIHD) and the Laudato Si’ Higher Education Centre, brought together more than 300 representatives of the Church, academics, researchers and those from the public and private sectors.
Also present at the ceremony were Card. Fabio Baggio CS, Pro-Prefect of DPIHD and Director General of the Laudato Si’ Higher Education Centre, and Msgr. Jozef Barlaš, Secretary of the same Dicastery, along with several officials. In his welcoming remarks, Card. Baggio said that “we cannot care for the Earth while forgetting the people who inhabit it. We cannot defend human dignity by destroying the conditions that make life possible.” He also expressed his spiritual closeness to the Holy Father during this difficult time while he undergoes lung surgery, noting that the Pope himself had been expected to attend and honor Card. Czerny. Then, Card. Baggio underscored how Pope Leo’s situation reminds us of our call to accompany one another, especially in moments of vulnerability. He concluded by inviting those present to observe a moment of silence and offer a personal prayer for Pope Leo XIV.
Upon receiving the award, Card. Czerny offered thanks to God, those present, his parents, whose love of nature and commitment to recycling rubbed off on him, and “everyone hearing the cry of the poor, and the earth”. He then referenced two figures he regards as models: Noah and Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince. It was thanks to Noah, the righteous man of the Old Testament, that “destruction did not have the final word. Humanity and the earth received a reprieve: a beautiful chance for a new beginning”. This, Card. Czerny said, “is the essence of our contemporary challenge of sustainability: a chance, before it’s too late, to safeguard – to save – humanity from environmental self-destruction”. The second figure, the Little Prince, is a refugee who comes to Earth from a distant planet in search of help. When he asks of a flower where to find people, the Prince receives an answer that, in the Cardinal’s view, is very relevant today: “One never knows where to find them. The wind blows them away. They have no roots, and that makes their life very difficult.” This answer reveals a “chronic rootlessness” that still prevails today.
Card. Czerny concluded by urging those present to heed “these haunting poetic images lamenting the calamity of unsustainability”, because they urge us “towards deep and constant conversion, the only true solution: to discard our many bad habits and adopt new paths through countless personal, communal and social changes of behaviour”.
At the end of the ceremony, many attendees had the opportunity to personally congratulate the Cardinal and pose for pictures with him. The evening ended with an outdoor buffet in the picturesque setting of Borgo Laudato Si’.
