On May 14 and 15, the first Workshop of the Pope Leo XIV International Study Center was held in Florence, at the Sala Ciolini of the Convent of Santo Spirito. The new center for research and formation was established within the Order of Saint Augustine and is dedicated to promoting cultural dialogue, international reflection, and education for the common good.
Inspired by the magisterium of Pope Leo XIV and by the Augustinian tradition, the Study Center aims to serve as a place of research, dialogue, and cultural production on the great issues of our time, promoting an open and dialogical vision centered on the dignity of the human person and shared responsibility.
Throughout the two days, particular emphasis was placed on the need for a genuine “culture of democracy”, capable of building bridges, encouraging encounters, and overcoming the barriers of prejudice, in the conviction that culture today represents an essential instrument for addressing the major social, political, and international transformations of our time.
The Workshop represented an important preparatory moment for the international conference “Let everything be yours in common. The Frontiers of Poverty”, which will take place from September 16 to 18, 2026, at the Pontifical Patristic Institute Augustinianum in Rome. The conference is promoted by the Pope Leo XIV International Study Center in collaboration with the Theological Faculty of Central Italy and the Augustinianum itself.
The title of the conference recalls one of the most significant passages of the Augustinian tradition and is ideally connected to Pope Leo XIV’s Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi te, which strongly emphasizes the themes of care for the poor, compassion, and social responsibility as central elements of Christian witness in the contemporary world.
The Florence Workshop was intentionally conceived as a private moment of study and planning, dedicated to members of the Scientific Committee and collaborators of the Study Center, following months of intensive preparatory work carried out to define the structure, contents, and scientific orientation of the Roman conference.
Participants experienced two intense days of study and discussion, welcomed within the hospitality of the Convent of Santo Spirito, reflecting on poverty not only in its economic dimension but also in its cultural, relational, political, and spiritual implications.
At the heart of the Workshop was the scientific preparation of the Roman event. Present were the coordinators of the three sessions into which the conference will be divided — Cristina Simonelli for “Fundamentals”, Massimo Faggioli for “Contemporaneity”, and Simone Morandini for “Experiences and Proposal” — who presented the speakers, cultural orientations, and scientific objectives of the different sessions.
Cristina Simonelli, theologian and Church historian, professor of Patristics at the theological institutes of Verona and at the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy, and former president of the Italian Women Theologians Coordination, will contribute to the conference a reflection focused on the theological and anthropological roots of poverty and social justice.
Massimo Faggioli, among the leading international scholars of contemporary Catholicism and of the relationship between religion and politics, professor of Ecclesiology at Trinity College Dublin and author of numerous studies on the Second Vatican Council and the pontificate of Pope Francis, will coordinate the session dedicated to the major issues of contemporaneity, with particular attention to geopolitical changes, conflicts, and new social fragilities.
Simone Morandini, theologian and ecumenist, vice director of the Institute for Ecumenical Studies “San Bernardino” in Venice, director of the journal CredereOggi, and recently elected president of the Secretariat for Ecumenical Activities (SAE), will coordinate the session dedicated to experiences and future perspectives, with special attention to interreligious dialogue, environmental ethics, the relationship between science and faith, and the new cultural challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence.
At the center of the Workshop also stood the lecture by Professor Donatella Pagliacci, full professor of Moral Philosophy at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and scholar of Augustinian thought, entitled “‘Let us live well the times, and the times will be good’ (sermo 311). Good citizenship and good politics according to Saint Augustine”, dedicated to the contemporary relevance of Augustine’s thought on the relationship between public ethics, citizenship, and political responsibility.
The September conference will bring together scholars, theologians, economists, philosophers, and representatives of the international ecclesial and academic world. Planned contributions include reflections on poverty in Sacred Scripture, the thought of the Church Fathers, the Social Magisterium, the relationship between peace, conflicts, and poverty, questions of law and human dignity, as well as issues related to artificial intelligence, migration, and new social fragilities.
The dialogue that developed during the Workshop gave rise to an intense and participatory exchange that helped to further clarify — within a strongly transdisciplinary perspective — several of the central themes of the conference, also in light of the most recent changes in the international context.
The work concluded with a brainstorming session dedicated to the future activities of the Study Center. Among the proposals that emerged were initiatives on interreligious dialogue for peace, support for local youth cultural associations, the organization of international summer schools in Florence for postgraduate students, and an interdisciplinary reflection program on Artificial Intelligence.
Different project lines, yet united by a common mission: to offer cultural tools and points of reference on the major ethical and social debates of the contemporary world, taking as a significant point of reference the thought of Augustine of Hippo and the Social Doctrine of the Church.
