Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – On November 21, in the Sistine Chapel, Pope Benedict XVI will meet with a group of major world artists, in an effort to give greater impetus and continuity to the dialogue between art and faith. The event was presented in the Holy See Press Office and is being promoted by the Pontifical Council for Culture and of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of John Paul II's Letter to Artists, and the forty-fifth anniversary of Paul VI's meeting with artists. “It is not meant to be a merely celebratory or commemorative event or and end in itself,” said Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council. “It is a process that hopes to give strength and vigor to the relationship and the dialogue between art and faith.”
Archbishop Ravasi, presenting a brief historical panorama, highlighted how Saint John Damascene, in the fourth century, said that in order to explain the faith to a pagan, it would be enough to take him into a Church, and without a word, have him contemplate the artwork. The Catholic Church has made noteworthy progress and offered support to art, especially visual art. She has never wished to make “an art of the State.” It was enough to take from and reflect the truth and the Bible to have an open path to carrying out a work. The Second Vatican Council affirmed the importance of art, saying that “the world needs art to not be darkened. Art is like the truth because it gives great joy and unites generations.” Reflecting on the present age, Archbishop Ravasi made a warning call: “there is a divorce between art and faith. On the one hand, art is on the road of sophisticated experimentation, at times incomprehensible and an end in itself, self-referent, and often times merely provocative. Above all, it has placed the religious aside. On the other hand, the Church has overlooked art, dedicating herself to simple and cheaper forms of artistry, with too many examples art with bad taste.”
Antonio Paolucci, Director of the Vatican Museums, also joined in making this warning call, adding that in his opinion, the Church “has lost its role as the great commitment to art. While the churches built in the past are places of beauty and excellence of colors, harmony, today, where the people are not living in unsightly homes and cities, when you enter the recently-built churches, you find yourself in ugly, gray, dark places. The Church should recover her role in the promotion of art.”
In light of this situation, we find the sense behind the November 21 meeting of the Pope with artists from all over the world, selected with certain difficulty given the many forms of art. The guests invited are now about 500, have been subdidvided, as Monsignor Pasquale Iacobone of the Pontifical Council for Culture explained, into five categories: painters and sculptors; architects; poets and writers; musicians and singers; directors and actors from cinema and theater. For now, a hundred have responded. “With this event, we hope to recover and strengthen the alliance between art and faith,” Archbishop Ravasi concluded. “And above all, to emerge from this poverty we should invest in formation, especially that of future priests and religious who will be the future caretakers of works of art.” (MT) (Agenzia Fides 11/9/2009)
