Pope Leo XIV: "Beauty helps us lift our gaze toward heaven"
Pope Leo XIV attended a concert organized by the Diocese of Albano in Castel Gandolfo during his summer stay, praising music as a means to lift the gaze toward heaven. The concert featured performances of works by Paganini and Bellini, with musicians Marco Rogliano, Rossana Tomassi Golkar, and the I Musici di Parma orchestra. Pope Leo XIV highlighted the lack of beauty in the world and the importance of art and music to bring hope and remind people of God’s creation. Bishop Vincenzo Viva opened the event, thanking the Pope and reflecting on the impact of war and the need for peace.
2 months ago
Pope Leo XIV addressed a concert held at Castel Gandolfo’s Apostolic Palace courtyard, highlighting how beauty—expressed through music and art—can lift humanity’s gaze toward heaven amid a world troubled by war, conflict, and hardship. 1
The Diocese of Albano organized the evening concert as a gesture of affection for the Pope during his summer stay in Castel Gandolfo. 1
Leo XIV told the audience that “beauty is lacking” in today’s world, yet gathering for the concert offers a “great gift” that reminds people there is more than suffering. He linked beauty to a spiritual ascent, saying it helps “lift our gaze toward heaven.” 1
He recalled a recent trip to Spain, noting that the purpose of that journey was also to elevate eyes toward the divine through music, art, and beauty. 1
The program paired Niccolò Paganini’s Polonaise with Variations from his Third Violin Concerto (performed by violinist Marco Rogliano) with Luis Bacalov’s “Libera fantasia e variazioni sulla Norma” based on Vincenzo Bellini’s opera (rendered by pianist Rossana Tomassi Golkar and the I Musici di Parma orchestra under Maestro Pier Carlo Orizio). 1
The juxtaposition of Paganini’s virtuosity and Bellini’s lyrical opera aimed to illustrate beauty’s power to transcend “the winds of war” and inspire hope. 1
Bishop Vincenzo Viva opened the event, thanking the Pope and emphasizing the local Church’s gratitude for his return to Castel Gandolfo. He described the concert as a way to share the gift of symphonic music and highlighted the suffering of women and mothers in war, linking their plight to a hope for a reconciled tomorrow. 1
Both the Pope’s and the bishop’s comments reinforced Leo XIV’s ongoing appeal for peace, suggesting that beauty and artistic expression can serve as pathways to reconciliation and spiritual renewal throughout his pontificate. 1
Explore how the Catholic Church defines art as a means to elevate the soul
Catholic teaching presents art—especially sacred art—as a genuine path for elevating the soul: it draws the human person beyond material appearances toward truth, goodness, and ultimately God, whose glory can be “seen” through beauty that speaks to the intellect and awakens prayer.
The Church begins with the idea that the beauty of the created world is not merely decorative; it is a kind of revelation. The Catechism teaches that “the beauty of creation reflects the infinite beauty of the Creator and ought to inspire the respect and submission of man’s intellect and will.”
Likewise, the Catechism explains that truth can use complementary forms of expression—“above all when it is a matter of evoking what is beyond words: the depths of the human heart… the mystery of God.” Even before God is revealed in words, God reveals Himself “through the universal language of creation.”
Implication: art participates in this “universal language.” When art is genuinely truthful and beautiful, it helps the mind and heart apprehend what ordinary speech cannot exhaust.
Catholic philosophy grounds this in the unity of the beautiful and the good. Aquinas teaches that “good” and “beautiful” relate differently to our faculties, yet are fundamentally identical in their basis: “they differ logically,” because goodness properly relates to the appetite, while beauty relates to the cognitive faculty—“beautiful things are those which please when seen.”
This matters for the soul’s elevation: beauty can calm and order desire by being apprehended, not only possessed. Aquinas even connects beauty with the cause of love: “the beautiful is the same as the good, and they differ in aspect only.”
So art “elevates the soul” not by escaping reality, but by helping reason and desire find their proper object—God—through beauty that truly corresponds to the good.
The Catechism states explicitly that the fine arts—“but above all sacred art”—are naturally directed to express God’s infinite beauty. It gives a key quotation (from Sacrosanctum Concilium):
Sacred art… “of their nature are directed toward expressing in some way the infinite beauty of God in works made by human hands,” and their dedication to God’s praise is “more complete” the more they are devoted to “turning men’s minds devoutly toward God.”
This is a direct answer to the question: the Church defines sacred art as a means of turning minds toward God—devotion, worship, and praise—rather than merely producing aesthetic effects.
The Catechism further clarifies what makes sacred art genuinely spiritual rather than simply artistic. Sacred art is “true and beautiful when its form corresponds to its particular vocation”: it should evoke and glorify, “in faith and adoration, the transcendent mystery of God”—the beauty of truth and love made visible in Christ.
It adds an explicit spiritual fruit:
“Genuine sacred art draws man to adoration, to prayer, and to the love of God.”
In other words: for the Church, the measure of sacred art is not only technique or novelty, but whether it leads the person into adoration, prayer, and love.
Vatican II emphasizes that artists, when they serve God in the Church, take part in a real, though dependent, likeness to God’s creative action. Bishops are to imbue artists with “the spirit of sacred art and of the sacred liturgy,” since artists are “engaged in a kind of sacred imitation of God the Creator” and make works “destined to be used in Catholic worship,” to edify the faithful and foster piety and religious formation.
This shows how art elevates the soul in a particularly Churchly way: art becomes part of the formation of conscience and the training of desire—education by beauty.
Pope St. John Paul II’s Letter to Artists roots artistic creativity in the image of God. He explains the difference between God’s creative act and human craftsmanship, insisting the distance remains: God’s creation “bestows being itself,” while human craft gives form and meaning to what already exists.
Yet he affirms that human artistic creativity can still lead to praise: the divine “passes on to the human artist a spark” of wisdom and calling him to share in God’s creative power, so that artists are led “to see themselves and the whole of creation with eyes able to contemplate and give thanks, and to raise to God a hymn of praise.”
Thus art elevates the soul by turning creativity into worship—while keeping proper theological humility.
Vatican II teaches that the Church has not adopted one single artistic style as her own:
“The Church has not adopted any particular style of art as her very own; she has admitted styles from every period…”
But it sets a clear condition for contemporary art: it must “adorn the sacred buildings and holy rites with due reverence and honor.”
This matters for “elevating the soul”: novelty alone is not the goal; the art must be capable of serving worship and leading minds upward toward God.
Vatican II also describes practical discernment in the Church. Local ordinaries must carefully ensure that “sacred furnishings and works of value are not disposed of or dispersed; for they are the ornaments of the house of God.”
And clerics should be taught the history and sound principles governing sacred art, so they can appreciate and preserve the Church’s monuments and advise artists.
Therefore: the Church’s approach to art is not romantic or vague. It’s disciplined, liturgical, and oriented toward spiritual fruit.
The Church applies these principles especially to sacred music and worship, where art is not treated as mere entertainment.
Pope Leo XIV (in a message to artists connected with Christmas concerts) explicitly states a liturgical principle: in the liturgy, “singing is never a ‘soundtrack’, a simple backdrop, but is intended to lift the soul to lead it as close as possible to the mystery that is celebrated.”
That line captures the Church’s anthropology of art: the goal is proximity—bringing the person close to the mystery, not just producing pleasing sensation.
Aquinas helps explain the interior mechanism. In contemplation of truth (which is ultimately God Himself), the soul experiences delight: “the intellect… does not understand by employing a bodily organ,” so “no sorrow mars the delight that consists in the contemplation of truth,” and “God himself is truth.”
If art is ordered to truth—especially divine truth revealed in Christ—then beauty becomes a bridge from sensory perception to intellectual apprehension, and from apprehension to love. This aligns with the Catechism’s teaching that genuine sacred art draws to prayer and love.
In Catholic terms, art elevates the soul when it is rooted in the good/true/beautiful, and—at its highest level in sacred art—when its form corresponds to its vocation of turning minds devoutly toward God, drawing people to adoration, prayer, and love, and thus leading the person from beauty seen to God worshiped.