help us to perceive the beauty that saves

He granted an audience in the Vatican to 200 writers, musicians, painters and filmmakers on the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the contemporary art collection of the Vatican Museums. Some significant figures of Asian art were also present. The Pope recommended: “Be sentinels of the true religious sense, sometimes trivialized or commercialized. And be interpreters of the cry of the poor”.

Vatican City () – “We are not only light, and you remind us of this; but it is necessary to project the light of hope in the darkness of the human, of individualism and indifference. Help us glimpse the light, the beauty that saves,” Pope Francis said this morning to a group of 200 artists from around the world whom he received in the evocative setting of the Sistine Chapel on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the modern and contemporary art section of the Vatican Museums.

At the audience -organized by the Department for Culture and Education- writers, poets, musicians, painters, film directors and actors were present. Among them were also some representatives of Asia: the South Korean pianist Yiruma, the Indian writer Pankaj Mishra, the Malaysian figurative artist HH Lim, the Korean-American director Jean Lee Young, the East Timorese artist José Avelar Borges, and the writer and Israeli playwright Roy Chen.

Pope Francis recalled the “natural and special” relationship between the Church and art which, he said, “is like a candle that is filled with the Spirit and allows us to move forward.” Citing the theologian Romano Guardini, who compared the figure of the artist with that of the child and the seer, he pointed out that his place is “in the space of invention, of novelty, of creation, of bringing into the world something that has never been seen that way.” “You are allies of God’s dream,” he added. They are the eyes that look and dream. Human beings yearn for a new world that we will not fully see with our own eyes, but we desire it, we search for it, we dream of it”.

Precisely for this reason, the Pope invited artists to “flee from the suggestive power of that presumed artificial and superficial beauty, which today is widespread and is often an accomplice to the economic mechanisms that generate inequalities.” It is a false, cosmetic beauty, a make-up that hides instead of revealing”. Instead, the real one is “critical conscience of society, which removes the veil from what is obvious. You want to show what makes us think, what makes us vigilant, what reveals reality even in its contradictions, in those aspects that it is more comfortable or convenient to keep hidden”. And “they do well – he added – to also be sentinels of the true religious meaning, sometimes trivialized or commercialized”.

“One of the things that brings art closer to faith is the fact that it is a little disturbing,” he commented. Art and faith cannot leave things as they are: they change them, transform them, convert them, shake them. Art can never be an anesthetic; it gives peace, but it does not numb consciences, it keeps them awake”.

Regarding the relationship with beauty, Francis spoke of “an important criterion of discernment, that of harmony.” “We are in a time of ideological media colonization and heartbreaking conflicts – he commented –, a homologous globalization coexists with many closed localisms. We need the principle of harmony to dwell more in our world. And you, the artists, can help us give space to the Spirit”.

Lastly, the Pope made a recommendation to artists: “I would like to ask you not to forget the poor, who are Christ’s favorites, in all the ways in which one is poor today. The poor also need art and beauty. Some experience very harsh forms of deprivation of life, and therefore need it more. They usually don’t have a voice to make themselves heard. You can be the interpreters of their silent cry.