Pope Benedict XVI and artists at the Sistine Chapel. ( AP Photo:
  Alessia Pierdomenico)

Seeking to renew the historical relationship between the Catholic Church and artists, Pope Benedict XVI invited over 260 well-known artists from around the globe to join him in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican for a meeting to encourage them in the service of humanity.  

The artists invited to the meeting represented a wide variety of artforms, including authors, architects, musicians, painters, sculptors, film-makers, stage designers and illuminators, directors and actors, dancers, as well as producers of video graphics and special effects, among others.

Since Catholic worship includes all of the senses -even during the Liturgy- the Catholic Church for centuries had extended its patronage to painters, sculptors, musicians, architects, and writers.

Under this patronage, explains Elizabeth Lev for Zenit, craftsmen became artists, as well as thinkers, who interpreted faith for their time. Art became a prestigious occupation, akin to mathematics, philosophy and even theology.

Despite this prestige, the biblical stories came to be perceived as restrictive by artists, who preferred instead to analyze themselves -ad nauseam.  Artists' feelings and emotions became their sole inspirations, gradually leading them to abandon formal training and traditional techniques in favor of depicting distorted realities.  

Beauty Brings Joy to the Human Heart

The Pope's invitation is his way to encourage artists to reconsider faith and the ultimate form of beauty -God- as the best and highest possible inspiration for any artform.

Faith takes nothing away from their [artists'] genius nor their art, on the contrary, it exults them and nourishes them. It encourages them to cross the threshold to contemplate with fascination and emotion the ultimate and definitive goal. [Pope Benedict XVI]

Pope Benedict XVI addresses over 260 artists from around the world.
(AP Photo: Alessia Pierdomenico)

In an effort to rebuild the bridge between faith and art that for decades has been disintegrating, Pope Benedict XVI called for a meeting that in his own words is: 'my invitation to friendship, dialogue and cooperation'.  He also called upon artists to see themselves as 'custodians of beauty'. The Pontiff said:

If we acknowledge that beauty touches us intimately, that it wounds us, that it opens our eyes, then we rediscover the joy of seeing, of being able to grasp the profound meaning of our existence. [Pope Benedict XVI]

Pope: Beauty is a privileged way to approach God

At an earlier audience, the Pontiff alluded to cathedrals as 'the true glory of the Christian Middle Ages -true Bibles in stone'.  Architecture during the Middle Ages 'attempted to translate the soul's longing for God into their building structure,' according to the Pope.

When faith meets art, a profound harmony is created, since both can and want to speak of God, rendering the invisible, visible...Romanesque and Gothic art, incomprehensible today if it does not take into account the religious spirit that inspired them, reminds us that the path of beauty is a priviledged and fascinating way to approach the mystery of God. [Pope Benedict XVI]

Click here to return to my webpage.                        


Get notified as articles get posted! Click on the "Subscribe to Email" button next to my photo on my main page to be notified by email.