Jubilee of Artists – 15-18 February 2025
You are preachers of beauty. Beauty does good. Beauty heals. Beauty helps us go forward on our journey… Artistic creation completes, in a certain sense, the beauty of Creation, and when it is inspired by faith reveals more clearly to people the divine love which is its origin. (Pope Francis, Vitae Summit, Rome 2022)
God is revealed to human beings in the mighty work of creating which is reflected in the world we see. The sky and the sun, the sea and the beach, the mountain and the forest, all fill us with delight and stir up in the human heart a sense of wonder. Most awesome is the human person. As Shakespeare’s Hamlet muses:
What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form, in moving, how express and admirable! In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god! The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? (II.2)
The human person has the creative possibility of working with stone and clay, line and colour, shape and form, sound and word and to make of them a sacrament, that is, a symbol which allows us to explore and experience the very mystery of existence. Here is the beauty that heals and does good. It encourages us to dream and hope.
How desperately the world needs your contribution as artists to help us imagine a better world free of violence and war, exploitation and oppression, poverty and misery. We need your help to be able to move beyond the distraction of superficial appearances and cosmetic beauty, beyond cheap comments that wound and divide. Instead, inspired by the work of the Creator of the Universe, you offer us the possibility of entering more deeply into the meaning and purpose of all that exists.
The role of art is to put a thorn in the heart, which moves us to contemplation, and contemplation puts us on a path… Art opens doors, touches hearts, and helps us to walk forward… (Pope Francis, Vitae Summit, Rome 2022)
Yes, art and artists can make a difference!
The transformations wrought by artists begin with the material world. Clay becomes a ceramic. Stone becomes a sculpture. Pigment becomes a painting. Sound becomes a song. But the artist does more than engage with the material world. Your work changes our perspective, our way of seeing the world.
This change can of course be pessimistic and malevolent; it can mock and divide. But at its best, it is prophetic. The prophet challenges the world and its leaders to change for the better; the prophetic voice promotes justice and respect, and encourages peace and harmony. We invite you as artists to consider how your creative work transfigures our world, how it brings inspiration and insight, delight and joy.
The vocation of the artist therefore is not so much to look inward and to focus merely on self-expression — this can easily become self-indulgent and non-productive. Artists and people of faith share common ground in seeking a ‘New Creation’, in revealing what is good and true, in opening up the full potential of the earth and those who dwell here.
Artists have a very important role in society: to be guardians of beauty in this world, ambassadors of the culture of encounter, and witnesses of hope for all humanity. (Pope Francis, Vitae Summit, Rome 2022)
The Church needs artists; the Church needs you.
This is why Pope Francis took part in the Vitae Summit in Rome (31 August —1 September 2022). This gathering brought together arts, media and entertainment personalities to help counter negative messages in our culture that bring hate, frustration and division. By tapping the powerful force of beauty, the summit sought to inspire efforts for a cultural transformation of hope, unity and the common good between people.
This is why, in 1963, the Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church affirmed that the fine arts are deservedly ranked among the noblest activities of human genius, saying that it applies especially to religious art and to its highest achievement sacred art (SC 122). Sacred art is art which reveals God’s infinite beauty and leads people of faith to praise and worship God. It encompasses not only devotional art but also the architectural arts (stained glass, murals, sculpture…) and the liturgical arts (crafting the vessels and vestments required for the liturgy).
This is why Pope John Paul II wrote a Letter to Artists in 1999 and why the popes have so frequently spoken to artists and encouraged their creative work.
In June 2023, for example, on the 50th anniversary of the Vatican Museums’ collection of modern art, Pope Francis said:
One of the things that draws art closer to faith is the fact that both tend to be troubling. Neither art nor faith can leave things simply as they are: they change, transform, move and convert them. Art can never serve as an anaesthetic; it brings peace, yet far from deadening consciences, it keeps them alert. Often, as artists, you attempt to plumb the depths of the human condition, its dark abysses. We are not all light, and you remind us of this. At the same time, there is a need to let the light of hope shine in that darkness, in the midst of our selfishness and indifference. Help us to glimpse the light, the beauty that saves.
We acknowledge humbly that, far too often in Australia, churches have had recourse to mass-produced images and liturgical vessels and vestments selected from a catalogue. This is serious deficit because we are missing out on your artistic gifts and insights in the life of our worshipping communities. We encourage parishes and support them in taking every opportunity to receive good works of religious and sacred art so that, having left your studio, they may inspire us in the Christian life.
The National Liturgical Architecture and Art Council is an expert advisory body to the Bishops Commission for Liturgy of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
