Pope Leo XIV turned a young 71 years of age on Sept. 14. On this happy occasion, he went to visit the Apostolic Vatican Library for the first time. During his visit, he addressed the staff of the library with words of gratitude and support for their service, as well as with words of high regard for the library. He began by saying, “Many of you may not know that my mother was a librarian, and today I am here on my birthday, specifically to greet all of you.”
Pope Leo is not the first pope, by any means, to appreciate the treasured Vatican Library as well as all libraries. When St. Pope Paul VI came to the Vatican after his election as pope, one of the first things he did was to have his library moved to his quarters at the papal residence. Pope Benedict XVI did the same after his election and expressed that he would feel at home when the books arrived since they were “his longtime friends.” It is also known that Pope Benedict wanted to retire at the age of 70 and work in the Vatican Library since he had such great devotion to books and learning. However, Pope John Paul II did not grant his request.
Unfortunately, today the library, as known by Pope Leo and those contemporary with him as well as by previous popes, has changed a great deal over the years. In our modern age of the digital world, so much of what would have been done in a library is now done on computers, away from the academic setting of a library, lessening the aura and value of the space of a library filled with books. A visit to a library today is much less frequent than in previous years. Even the card catalog system is no longer known by current students of colleges and universities as well as of secondary schools. While there is much positive in the current situation, there is also a great loss in what a library is and offers to students and others in terms of its inherent value as a place of learning.
In his address to the staff of the Apostolic Library, Pope Leo made excellent points in regard to the value of what a library is all about. He stated that he wanted his visit “to be a sign of the pope’s closeness to and appreciation for the mission of the archives and library, which are at the service of the development and spreading of culture, for the benefit of the Church and all of humanity.” He stressed that the library is a place for “collecting and preserving a vast patrimony of learning and art, and of making it available to scholars in search of truth.”
The pope described libraries as quiet and peaceful places. He emphasized that books are silent and ask for silence. While a book brings calm, it also awakens a restlessness and the desire and daring to search. He emphasized how St. Augustine, his patron, was an example of this dynamic. Pope Leo said that, in studying and making available books to scholars, the Apostolic Library helps the Church and humanity to reach the depths of desire. He said, “without it, everything withdraws from the living God, the source of truth and love.”
Pope Leo went on to define the Apostolic Library as “a heart.” A beating heart is a symbol of life which results from two opposing movements, a contraction and a relaxation, which is “a movement towards the center, and another towards the periphery.” He emphasized how the Apostolic Library, as well as all libraries, stays alive insofar as it keeps its movement as contraction and relaxation. He spoke of the influence of Pope Leo XIII, the inspiration for the taking of his papal name, as one who recognized the most serious issues of his time, including the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. The Leonine Hall of the Vatican Library was dedicated to Pope Leo XIII, who opened the Vatican archives to scholars from around the world and expanded access to the library. Pope Leo XIV expressed, “The openness and breadth of vision of this library are evident from its humanistic origins: not only works of theology, but also literature, philosophy, astronomy, physics, mathematics, geography, botany, zoology, medicine, history, law, art and economics. There are not only European and Christian books, but also volumes written in another religious context and originating from every corner of the world. All of this happened many centuries before this practice became a universally shared value.”
A library is truly a place of study, contemplation and human interaction in the midst of the silence, where so many people gather to pursue the expanse of their minds. A library holds much more than all of the algorithms of artificial intelligence, which is separated from the beating heart of the library, where so many human persons have grown in their appreciation of themselves and each other in a world where such interaction is essential. As artificial intelligence continues to rapidly expand, it cannot match the insight of the books and atmosphere of a library in its beating heart.
The hope for the Apostolic Library, which Pope Leo expressed in his address, is most fitting for every library. He said, “May the Apostolic Library continue to be a place marked by discretion, quiet, respect and care. Within the Vatican walls, may the almost monastic atmosphere of the Apostolic Library remind us each day of the Savior’s command: ‘If you have to build, if you have to fight, first sit down and study’ (Lk 14:28-32). The inner life of the Apostolic Library also depends upon the unique, priceless treasure it preserves. While on the one hand it is right to facilitate access to this treasure for study, including through digitization and online access, on the other it is also necessary to preserve and encourage the ancient practice of physically making one’s way to the library. For it is not merely a repository of books from which one can conveniently draw using a computer at home, but an atmosphere created by relationships, exchange and the sharing of ideas.”
Pope Leo XIV’s visit to the Vatican Library and his words on his 71st birthday are certainly wise today, especially in the face of artificial intelligence, which he is addressing so insightfully. The more the tradition of the beating heart of a library recedes, the more the beating heart of the human person does as well.
Most Reverend Gerld M. Barbarito
