The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network invites all to join in the Holy Father’s August 2017 prayer intention: “That artists of our time, through their ingenuity, may help everyone discover the beauty of creation.”
Popes though the ages have been great supporters of the arts. As St John Paul wrote in his letter to artists: “None can sense more deeply than you artists, ingenious creators of beauty that you are, something of the pathos with which God at the dawn of creation looked upon the work of his hands. A glimmer of that feeling has shone so often in your eyes when—like the artists of every age—captivated by the hidden power of sounds and words, colors and shapes, you have admired the work of your inspiration, sensing in it some echo of the mystery of creation with which God, the sole creator of all things, has wished in some way to associate you.
“That is why it seems to me that there are no better words than the text of Genesis with which to begin my Letter to you, to whom I feel closely linked by experiences reaching far back in time and which have indelibly marked my life: God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”
Pope Francis writes of the importance of art and artists in the mission of the Vatican Museums: “Art, aside from being a credible witness to the beauty of creation, is also a tool of evangelization. In the Church, it exists above all to evangelize: through art – music, architecture, sculpture, painting – the Church explains and interprets the revelation… Art has an intrinsic salvific dimension and must be open to everything and everyone, offering consolation and hope to all. For this reason the Church must promote the use of art in its work of evangelization, looking to the past but also to the many current forms of expression.”
