Leão XIV: at the service of truth, good and beauty

Leo XIV is the new Pope. Graduated in Mathematics from Villanova University, Pennsylvania, Robert Francis Prevost was elected in 2019 by the Peruvian Episcopal Conference as Chairman of the Education and Culture Commission.

October 4, 2023, already after the appointment to Cardinal, Robert Francis Prevost It would be appointed by Pope Francis member of the Dicker for Vatican’s culture and education.

This election should therefore be received with Special enthusiasm For the world of culture, we are not facing a very sensitive leader attentive to the themes and problems of culture and education.

Leo XIV is still the first pope of the order of St. Augustine. A religious order very close to the art world that, throughout its history, sought to reflect and value the beauty of human expression, recognizing, for example, music, painting, sculpture and architecturehow “Instruments for expressing and deepening faith, valuing beauty as a manifestation of divinity.”

The Catholic Church, and in particular the Government of the Vatican State City, has always been, in fact, Charging of Arts and Culture In the world. Art presented itself for centuries, as the main means of expression, communication and evangelization of faith.

It was through art that the church communicated and transmitted accessible to its word. The Catholic Church was still, until a few years agothe main driver and cultural patron.

Today, its function is much more than a means of communication, seeking to be itself A mode of evocation and glorification of faith.

Now, given the profile of the new Pope Leo XIV (and the fact, why not, from the dickerbean to the culture and education of the Holy See to be presided over, since 2022, by our Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça), we can say that we have all the ingredients for the culture to be high Noteworthy, and that the bridge between the Holy See and the world of culture is highlighted for a care that it has not benefited in recent years.

Obviously, the various artistic manifestations of the Catholic Church are not exhausted in the production of painting or sculpture, being transversal To other artistic manifestations, such as architecture, music or writing.

Formally, the dicker for culture and education, a kind of “ministry of culture” of the Vatican, is subdivided into two sections: The section for education and the section for culture.

A Section for culture promotes and implements the relations between the Holy See and the world of culture, seeking that cultural agents, arts and letters “Know and feel that they are recognized by the Church as people in the service of the sincere search for truth, good and beauty.”

This section also has the function of tutelary and preserving the historical, artistic and cultural heritage, with special focus on the conservation and study of files and libraries. It is still, in itself, Creator Institute of Cultural Initiativesaccompanying and supporting projects dynamized by the various institutions of the Church.

With one SO COMPLEX PROGRAM AGENDAwith wars and conflicts, injustice, poverty and hunger in the world, I wonder: Where will culture be? How can this man, even sensitive to these issues, put the culture on the agenda?

Culture may be The Unimaginable Secret For a response to social challenges and global conflicts?

A complex mission, in fact! I finish, leaving the desire for Leo XIV to be able to put the culture with its exercise “in the service of truth, good and beauty ”!