Pope Leo’s greeting to The Louisiana Patrons of The Arts in The Vatican Museums
7 October 2026
(The Louisiana Patrons of The Arts in The Vatican Museums is an inter-faith non-profit organization that helps fund the restoration and conservation of artwork and buildings
within the Vatican Museums)
Pope Leo’s greeting (including references)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Peace be with you.Dear friends,
Good morning, and welcome to the Vatican.
As patrons of the arts in the Vatican Museums, your love of art and beauty, as well as your desire to preserve humanity’s artistic and religious patrimony for future generations, undoubtedly drew you to Rome.
You also come as pilgrims today, moved to visit Rome’s sacred sites to ask for God’s grace and blessing, experience His mercy, and find renewed strength in your daily journey of faith.
I hope that your time spent in prayer at the tombs of the apostles will strengthen your connection to the successor of Peter and the universal church.
As you know, Pope Saint Paul VI played an important role in the events that led to the formation of your organization.
He once said, “This world in which we live needs beauty in order not to sink into despair.
Beauty, like truth, brings joy to the human heart, uniting generations through shared admiration.”
As patrons, I trust you have experienced firsthand the power of beauty to awaken the noblest desires of the human heart. Beauty calls us beyond ourselves, opening our souls to God’s generous gifts.
In this spirit, I would like to thank you for your generous collaboration over the past decades in helping to preserve the art of the Vatican Museums.
In an age dominated by technology, in which efficiency and profit often take precedence, it is so important that we continue to cultivate a spirit of contemplation and allow time and space for beauty.
Such an attitude will greatly help humanity, especially young people, not only to discover the ability of art to uplift and reveal the depths of the human spirit and our openness to the divine, but also to realize that the gift of self is essential for authentic fulfilment.
Ultimately, contemplation offers a wonderful opportunity to encounter the beautiful God, whom Saint Augustine described as both ancient and new.
This beauty captivates and draws everyone to itself.
(Confessions of St. Augustine) Book 10: Chapter 27;
Too late did I love You, O Fairness, so ancient, and yet so new! Too late did I love You!
For behold, You were within, and I without, and there did I seek You;
I, unlovely, rushed heedlessly among the things of beauty You made.
You were with me, but I was not with You.
Those things kept me far from You, which, unless they were in You, were not.
You called, and cried aloud, and forced open my deafness.
You gleamed and shine, and chase away my blindness.
You exhaled odours, and I drew in my breath and do pant after You.
I tasted, and do hunger and thirst.
You touched me, and I burned for Your peace.
John‘s Gospel (12:32 – I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”).
Dear friends,
As you continue your pilgrimage, I encourage you to open yourselves to this beauty and find ways to help others do the same.
With renewed gratitude, I entrust all of you and your families to the loving intercession of Our Lady of the Rosary, whose feast we celebrate today.
I willingly impart my apostolic blessing to everyone associated with the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums as a pledge of peace and joy in the Lord.