DE LEON XIII A LEON XIV

What has the Catholic Church truly contributed to the world we inhabit? This question, as simple in appearance as it is decisive for understanding our recent history, is the starting point of From Leo XIII to Leo XIV, a book that invites us to view the last one hundred and fifty years from a rarely explored perspective: that of the magisterium, the actions, and the cultural influence of the popes. In an accessible and explanatory tone, the author explores the major debates that have shaped modernity: democracy and dictatorships, freedom and human rights, world wars and peace processes, ecology, education, the role of women, popular culture, and the social dilemmas that remain alive in the 21st century. From Rerum novarum to recent encyclicals, through critical moments in international politics, this book shows how the Church has not been a passive spectator, but rather an actor that has accompanied, warned, engaged in dialogue, and, on occasion, driven decisive changes. The book explores the major arenas where recent history has unfolded — democracy and totalitarianism, wars and peace processes, human rights, labor, secularization, ecology, and the role of women — and shows how the Church has intervened in them not as a political power, but as a moral, cultural, and intellectual actor, often an uncomfortable one, sometimes decisive, never irrelevant. Alongside historical and theological analysis, the author introduces an approach uncommon in this genre: a constant dialogue with cinema, literature, and popular culture. Novels and films serve here as a privileged means of understanding the human dilemmas of each era, where scholarly documents fail to reveal the full picture. With a clear, accessible, and rigorous style, this book offers an invitation to understand why the Church is an inescapable presence in the history of the contemporary world.