Pope Leo: the Church needs artists

Photo by Avi Richards on Unsplash

Source: Vatican Media

Pope Leo gave a reflection on the relationship between the Church and art in an address to participants in a meeting on Friday, promoted by the Dicastery for Culture and Education, entitled: "The Art of Possibility: Weaving Together."

Especially in "the age of search engines," Pope Leo said, the Church stands in need of artists," who can aid pastors in making the Gospel "accessible and understandable."

After thanking members of the Dicastery for their work on the Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Pope Leo highlighted the motto for this year's Vatican exhibit: 'The Ear is the Eye of the Soul.' Indeed, he said, "art acts like an antenna, picking up the great questions of the human heart … and making them audible, visible, and shareable."

Invoking St Augustine's "immortal testament to the restlessness of the human heart in search of truth," Pope Leo said that "art, when authentic, is animated by this restlessness." This, he explained, is why, for the Church, art is never "a mere accessory," but instead "a fundamental place of listening-a space where one allows oneself to be instructed about humanity's aspirations and wounds, its thirst for beauty, justice, and peace, and its search for meaning."

In an age of search engines, he said, "the great danger is no longer just censorship, but homogenization; not merely imposed silence, but the noise that makes listening impossible."

Art, in contrast, continually goes deeper than pre-packaged responses, seeking instead "the thread that connects" the facts repeated by automated systems.

Recalling Saint Paul VI's words to artists, Pope Leo said the Church needs artists who can collaborate in the ministry of preaching and making the world of the spirit, of God, "accessible and understandable."

"This is true especially in this era of artificial intelligence," Pope Leo continued, "when it has become urgent to distinguish human art from what is produced by machines."

He insisted on the "ontological difference-prior even to the aesthetic-between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others."

And so, the Holy Father said, "the Church wishes to renew its alliance with artists and cultural institutions."

Pope Leo concluded his address by assuring artists and curators "that the Church regards you with esteem, gratitude, and hope; that it needs you and wishes to walk alongside you, so that together we may safeguard the 'magnificent humanity' entrusted to us.