Writings and Statements from Popes and Prelates
Pope Francis
Address to Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums (2013) Click here for the full text |
In every age the Church has called upon the arts to give expression to the beauty of her faith and to proclaim the Gospel message of the grandeur of God’s creation, the dignity of human beings made in his image and likeness, and the power of Christ’s death and resurrection to bring redemption and rebirth to a world touched by the tragedy of sin and death.
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Cardinal Christoph Schönborn
Archbishop of Vienna from the Preface of Christian Sacred Art for the Proclamation of the Faith (1999) Click here for the full text in German |
Art is made by human beings--human beings who live in a particular time, but who also seek a dimension other than the immediate actuality. For centuries, artists have been attempting to express the faith and testify to it in word and image, in architecture and music. Europe's culture still draws its life from this great Christian artistic heritage. Has this heritage simply become past, irrevocable history? |
Pope Pius XI
Address at the opening of the Vatican Pinacoteca (1932) Click here for the full text in Italian |
Tante opere d’arte, indiscutibilmente e per sempre belle, come quelle che stiamo per passare ammirando in rassegna; opere nella quasi totalità così profondamente ispirate al pensiero ed al sentimento religioso, da farle sembrare, ora, come fu ben detto, delle ingenue e fervorose invocazioni e preghiere, ora dei luminosi inni di fede, ora delle sublimi elevazioni e dei veri trionfi di gloria celeste e divina... |