Pope Leo XIV has formally instituted the Fratello Sole Foundation through a chirograph dated June 1, 2026, to oversee the construction and operation of an agrivoltaic plant at the Vatican’s extraterritorial zone of Santa Maria di Galeria. The initiative aims to supply electricity to the Vatican Radio transmission centre while securing the complete energy self-sufficiency of Vatican City State.

The move advances a project first mandated by Pope Francis in his apostolic letter Fratello Sole, issued motu proprio on June 21, 2024. That document appointed the president of the Governorate of Vatican City State and the president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See as extraordinary commissioners to carry out the work. A bilateral agreement with Italian authorities, signed on July 31, 2025, entered into force on May 27, 2026, clearing the legal path for development on the site.

Agrivoltaics combines solar energy generation with continued agricultural use of the land, allowing crops or grazing beneath or between elevated photovoltaic panels. The Santa Maria di Galeria facility, about 18 kilometres north of Rome, has long housed the powerful shortwave and digital transmitters of Vatican Radio. Pope Leo XIV visited the site in June 2025, where he examined the proposed location while thanking staff for their service in global evangelisation.

In the chirograph, the Holy Father described the foundation as “a sign of hope for the future and an example of how energy production and agriculture can be harmonised while respecting and protecting the environment”. It explicitly references the principles contained in Laudato si’ (2015), Laudate Deum (2023), the Fratello Sole motu proprio itself and the broader social magisterium of the Church. The new body has its legal seat in Vatican City State but will conduct all operational activity within the Santa Maria di Galeria extraterritorial area.

For the initial three-year term, Pope Leo XIV has appointed Sister Raffaella Petrini FSE, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State, as president of the foundation, and Bishop Giordano Piccinotti SDB, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, as vice-president. Both will exercise the powers set out in the statutes, which the Pope has simultaneously approved and promulgated.

The project forms part of a wider Vatican commitment to renewable energy and carbon neutrality. Proponents present it as a practical application of stewardship over creation, while critics in more traditional circles have questioned the scale of emphasis placed on environmental initiatives relative to the Church’s primary supernatural mission.

The foundation’s establishment nevertheless reflects the continuing institutionalisation of ecological concerns within Vatican governance structures. Santa Maria di Galeria, granted extraterritorial status under the Lateran Treaty arrangements, provides the necessary space for a project of significant ambition.