Pope Benedict XVI greets artists, actors and musicians in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican on Saturday.
Vatican via AP
Vatican via AP
Vatican City – Pope Benedict XVI met with artists from around the world in the Sistine Chapel today.
The Vatican said it invited some 500 artists to the event, regardless of religious, political or stylistic allegiances. More than 250 accepted, mostly from Italy, including singer Andrea Bocelli and award-winning film composer Ennio Morricone.
The pope told the gathering of hundreds of painters, sculptors, architects, poets and directors, held beneath the vaulted ceiling of the chapel painted by Michelangelo, that he wanted to "renew the Church's friendship with the world of art."
The Pope told them that in a world lacking in hope, with increasing signs of aggression and despair, there was an ever greater need for a return to spirituality in art. He also urged them to inject spirituality into their work saying contemporary beauty was often "illusory and deceitful."
"Too often ... the beauty thrust upon us is illusory and deceitful ... it imprisons man within himself and further enslaves him, depriving him of hope and joy," he said.
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