Pope Leo XIV marked the centenary of the Vatican Publishing House by offering a warm and timely defense of books in an age shaped by speed, screens, and ideological division.
Speaking on May 7, 2026, to members of the editorial offices of the Libreria Editrice Vaticana, the Pope described the anniversary as a “family” celebration. Founded as an independent entity in 1926, the publishing house grew out of the Vatican Printing House, which dates back to 1587.
Over the past century, Leo noted, it has “served nine popes,” helping to spread their Magisterium “as a contribution to the dissemination of the Gospel throughout the world.”
The Pope organized his address around three simple ideas: the book as an opportunity to think, to encounter others, and to proclaim Christ.
“In the digital age,” he said, “the physicality of the book reminds us of the role of thought, reflection and study.” Reading, he added, “nourishes the mind” and helps form “a conscious and well-formed critical sense.”
For Leo, books are a safeguard against intellectual laziness and extremism. He urged people to read “as an antidote to closed-mindedness, which is reflected in rigid attitudes and reductive views of reality.”
The Pope also emphasized the social power of reading. “When we hold a book in our hands, we ideally encounter its author,” he said. A book also connects readers across time: those who have read it before, those reading it now, and those who will read it in the future.
Echoing Pope Francis’ emphasis on the “culture of encounter,” Leo called a book “a bridge to others, a source of dialogue that enriches us, a stimulus to expand our own perspective.”
Finally, he turned to the Christian vocation of publishing. “For us Christians,” he said, “the book is an opportunity to proclaim Christ.”
He pointed to the lasting power of saintly lives and spiritual writing: “We know well how reading a saint’s biography or a well-written spiritual reflection can touch the heart.”
The Pope then evoked familiar sacred images: Mary reading Scripture at the Annunciation, St. Anthony of Padua holding the Gospels, and St. Augustine seated before a book, sometimes shown with a heart in his hand — “truth and charity.”
“At the school of Mary and the Saints,” Leo said, “let us nourish ourselves with the Word of God, so that it may shape our way of thinking and acting.”
He closed by recalling St. Paul VI’s 1976 encouragement to the same publishing house: “look ahead, to refine ideas and plans for the future.”
