Pope encourages Leo XIV Study Center to help build a civilization of love
Pope Leo XIV welcomed members of the Leo XIV International Study Center, urging them to draw on authentic humanism and the Church’s social doctrine to build a civilization of love. He highlighted the Center’s commitment to dialogue with universities, public bodies, civil society and ecclesial groups, stressing collaboration at national and international levels. The Pope urged the study center to promote public and political formation rooted in solidarity, justice and peace, and to foster interaction between faithful and the Magisterium. He concluded by inviting participants to be experts in God’s new things, encouraging conversion and progress toward the Church’s vision.
12 days ago
Pope Leo XIV urged the Leo XIV International Study Center to promote Catholic social teaching, dialogue, and formation for public life as means of building a “civilization of love.” He emphasized authentic humanism, peace, solidarity, justice, and Augustinian ideas about love and social renewal. 1 2 4
Leo XIV received members of the international study center at the Vatican on September 18, describing the gathering as an initiative of his Augustinian religious family. One report said approximately 50 people attended the audience. 2 4
The center was established within the Order of St. Augustine in 2025 and is dedicated to studying the life, teaching, and magisterium of Pope Leo XIV, especially his approach to Catholic social doctrine. Reports differ on its precise founding date: one identifies August 2025, another October 2025, while December 2025 is given as the date of its registration as an Italian third-sector organization. 2 4
The institution is based in Florence and works with the Theological Faculty of Central Italy and the Pontifical Patristic Institute Augustinianum in Rome. It also seeks partnerships with universities, public bodies, civil society groups, ecclesial institutions, and networks in Italy and internationally. 2 4
The pope praised the center’s commitment to broad dialogue across academic, civic, ecclesial, and social sectors. He described its approach as “walking together” without closing the door to people who think, speak, or act differently. 1 2 4
Leo said Catholic social doctrine developed through the interaction of Christian revelation with modern social, labor, economic, and cultural questions. He particularly highlighted the contribution of laypeople, both men and women, as well as religious who helped the Church respond to the challenges of their time. 1 2
He also called for continuing interaction among the faithful and the Church’s magisterium, ordinary citizens and experts, and individuals and institutions. The study center was encouraged to serve as a place where these exchanges can support reflection and action. 1 2
Leo defined the center’s “mission of hope” as the formation of people for public and political life understood as service to the common good. He connected this formation with responsibility toward the community and relationships based on solidarity, justice, and peace. 1 2
The pope presented this work as an answer to mistrust, resignation, and withdrawal from public engagement. He encouraged the center’s members to act as “pioneers” and “facilitators,” helping prepare new generations to participate constructively in civic and political life. 2 4
He also stressed the importance of critical thinking and reflection in building a civilization of love, saying that Catholic social doctrine offers resources for addressing contemporary challenges. 2 4
Leo described Christian or authentic humanism as a vision open to the Creator and therefore capable of fostering fraternal relationships. He linked this vision to the center’s location in Florence, presenting the city as a symbol of the humanist tradition. 1 2 4
He contrasted civilization built through peace and just balances with civilization pursued through war. In his words, it is the “weaving of peace and just balances,” with the participation of society’s social and cultural components, that produces civilization. 1 2
The pope said Augustinian thought could contribute to the contemporary international context by presenting love as a force for renewal in personal, economic, and political life. He summarized this approach by saying that love binds in order to liberate, unites in order to generate, and commits in order to build. 2 4
Leo also referred to his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, saying that history should be viewed in light of the crucified and risen Christ rather than as a predetermined destiny. He described the present as an opportunity for personal and collective conversion. 2 4
He concluded by urging the center’s scholars and educators to “be experts in God’s newness.” The phrase referred to changes that emerge quietly and patiently, opening paths beyond the dead ends of the old world rather than relying only on speed, efficiency, or technical solutions. 1 2 4
Examine Augustinian social doctrine as foundation for civic engagement
Augustinian social doctrine can ground civic engagement by joining political realism, ordered love, justice, peace, and humility. It neither identifies the earthly city with the Kingdom of God nor withdraws Christians from public life. Instead, it calls them to serve the common good while resisting domination, nationalism, ideological absolutism, and coercive politics.
Augustine’s central political insight is that societies are shaped by what they love. Pope Benedict XVI summarizes The City of God as an account of history divided between “love of self”—even to indifference toward God—and “love of God”—even to freedom from self-centeredness for the sake of others.
The “two cities” are therefore not simply two geographical or institutional entities. They represent two orientations of the human person and of collective life. Pope Leo XIV explains that the earthly and heavenly cities coexist until the end of history, while each also has an internal dimension expressed in people’s attitudes and choices. Christians belong politically to the earthly city, but their ultimate homeland is the heavenly city.
This prevents two opposite errors:
Augustinian engagement is therefore provisional but serious. Political arrangements can promote real goods, yet they remain contingent and incapable of delivering salvation. A contemporary Augustinian interpretation accordingly describes political orders as capable of facilitating genuine goods while also being capable of suppressing them.
For Augustine, civic action cannot be reduced to procedures, interests, or competition for power. It must be governed by rightly ordered love. Love of neighbor is not opposed to love of God; properly understood, love of God protects the neighbor from possessive and destructive forms of love.
This gives civic engagement a distinctly Christian character:
This emphasis is important because a merely procedural account of justice may establish fair rules without generating the trust and solidarity necessary for a healthy society. An Augustinian ethic therefore views civic friendship as a remedy for the coldness of purely formal justice.
Civic friendship does not mean sentimental agreement. It means recognizing opponents as fellow citizens rather than enemies whose destruction is desirable. It supports patient dialogue, truthfulness, forgiveness, and cooperation for shared goods.
Augustine’s political thought is deeply skeptical of power detached from justice. His famous question—what are kingdoms without justice but organized bands of robbers?—expresses the principle that authority is morally legitimate only when ordered toward justice.
Peace, likewise, is more than the absence of open conflict. Augustine’s tranquillitas ordinis, or “peace of order,” includes both civil peace—the concord of citizens—and the perfect peace of the heavenly city.
For civic engagement, this means that Christians should evaluate political programs by asking:
Pope Benedict connects Augustine’s vision with the Catholic principles of solidarity and subsidiarity. Solidarity recognizes the bonds uniting the human family; subsidiarity ensures that higher levels of authority support, rather than unnecessarily replace, families, associations, local communities, and personal initiative.
Thus, Augustinian civic engagement is neither radical individualism nor centralized control. It encourages participation in families, voluntary associations, local communities, professional organizations, political institutions, and international cooperation.
Augustinian doctrine encourages engagement without naïveté. The state is necessary for public order, justice, and peace, but it is not the source of ultimate meaning. Political communities can achieve limited goods, yet they are always marked by sin, conflict, ambition, and the desire to dominate.
This makes Christians both participants and critics. They should cooperate with political institutions where these serve justice, while challenging policies that violate human dignity or manipulate public fear. Pope Leo XIV applies this Augustinian realism to contemporary dangers such as false historical narratives, excessive nationalism, distorted images of political leadership, and the replacement of dialogue with force.
The same realism requires acknowledgment of Augustine’s own limitations. His position during the Donatist controversy, particularly regarding coercive force, cannot simply be defended as a model for modern civic action. The supplied scholarly assessment calls that position indefensible, even while explaining its political and historical context. It also notes that Augustine did not fully articulate a clear distinction between civic and ecclesial authority.
This is a necessary warning: appealing to Augustine does not authorize religious coercion, confessional nationalism, or the fusion of Church and state. His principles must be received critically and developed in harmony with later Catholic teaching on religious freedom, the autonomy of earthly affairs, and the distinction between ecclesial and political authority.
An Augustinian foundation can shape practical habits of citizenship.
Because political communities are vulnerable to distorted narratives, citizens must resist propaganda, demonization, and selective memory. The search for truth is itself a civic duty.
Public decisions should be judged by their effects on the whole community, especially those excluded from power. The common good is not simply the sum of private interests.
Love of neighbor requires concrete responsibility for migrants, the poor, the persecuted, the sick, and those without political influence. Christian citizenship cannot be reduced to defending one’s own group.
Citizens should strengthen families, local communities, associations, and initiatives rather than expecting the state to solve every problem. Higher authorities should provide assistance where smaller communities cannot act effectively, without absorbing their proper responsibilities.
Since no political party or movement embodies the heavenly city, Christians should oppose absolutist political loyalties. They can disagree firmly while preserving the dignity of opponents and seeking attainable forms of cooperation.
Augustinian social doctrine provides a foundation for civic engagement by directing political life toward justice, peace, solidarity, and the common good, while warning that no earthly order can become humanity’s salvation. Its deepest contribution is the formation of citizens whose loves are ordered toward God and therefore toward the genuine good of their neighbors.
The Augustinian citizen participates actively, but without political idolatry; seeks influence, but rejects domination; defends truth, but practices humility; and works for earthly peace while remembering that perfect peace belongs to the heavenly city.