Pope Leo XIV posts photos from a visit to the Vatican Radio transmission centre, an extraterritorial possession of the Vatican in the Santa Maria di Galeria area, 18 kilometres north-west of the centre of Rome

And do you know, it is quite an enviable plot of land, 430 hectares in extent, ten times the size of the Vatican itself, which covers 44 hectares.

The visit of Leo XIV, together with officials of the Dicastery for Communication and the office of the Governorate of Vatican City State, is connected with Pope Francis's intention to create a large solar energy station. For now, what is under discussion is an agrivoltaic system on the fields of the Holy See, which would allow both farming and the generation of electricity from solar panels.

But I wanted to tell you about something else. The Vatican acquired these 430 hectares in 1951, and the Italian state permitted the construction on them of a new transmission centre for Vatican Radio. Work began in 1954, and the centre was opened in 1957 by Pope Pius XII. Since this territory is an extraterritorial possession of the Vatican under the Lateran Treaty, signed by the Holy See and Benito Mussolini, it is exempt from Italian legislation.

It is precisely in the Lateran Treaty that an interesting conflict lies concealed, one connected with the radio masts at Santa Maria di Galeria: a case has been brought against Vatican Radio over so-called electromagnetic smog. The problem of the intensity of the station's electromagnetic emissions was raised in 2000. Seven years later, charges appeared against the radio station and its directors of dangerous pollution that might have harmed the health of residents of the neighbouring houses.

Local residents maintain that the non-ionising radiation of the radio transmitters has affected their health, and their case is supported by a study showing a statistically higher incidence of leukaemia within a 6 km radius of the transmitter, especially among children. Since this part of Rome does not fall under Italian jurisdiction, the transmitters are not subject to the Italian laws restricting the permissible radiation of radio stations. In the immediate vicinity of the masts the emitted radiation may exceed the limit set by Italian law by more than a factor of two, as officially confirmed by the supervisory bodies. In court, however, the station invokes the Lateran Treaty signed by Mussolini, which exempts it from Italian legislation.

Because of this case Vatican Radio is sometimes called Radio Herod, in an Old Testament allusion to the episode of the slaughter of the innocents. They irradiate as best they can.