This organ you see is located in the Basilica of St. Augustine in Rome. It might undoubtedly go unnoticed. However, the story behind it is, to say the least, curious.
Pope Leo XIII wrote the encyclical Rerum Novarum in 1891. In it, he defended labor rights. It was the Church's first social encyclical.
Pope Leo XIV followed in the same footsteps. He himself stated that he had chosen this name in honor of his predecessor for having supported workers.
However, this close sensitivity to the world of work is not the only thing that unites the two pontiffs.
What few people know is that Pope Leo XIII also received an Augustinian spirituality in his early years.
FR. JOSEPH FARRELL
Assistant General for North America
Pope Leo XIII was a man who grew up in an Augustinian parish in Carpineto Romano, just south of Rome. Here, Leo XIII was very close to the Augustinians at the time.
This organ was a gift from Pope Leo XIII himself to the Augustinian community in gratitude for the influence this spirituality had on him.
Today, the religious who reside in this Roman basilica guard it with great care.
It is an element that further strengthens the ties between the last two popes who chose the name Leo.
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