“Beauty of Christ” is inspiration for artistic patrimony over last 2000 years, says Pope

Vatican City, Nov 8, 2004 / 22:00 pm

During a meeting today of the Coordinating Council Between Pontifical Academies, founded by Pope John Paul II in 1995,  Archbishop Leonardo Sandri read the Holy Father’s address to the meeting, whose theme was “The Way of Beauty,” in which the Pope spoke of the artistic patrimony inspired by the beauty of Christ.

The Pope called the meeting “a privileged itinerary for the encounter between the Christian faith and the cultures of our times," and pointed out that the Church, over 2,000 years, "has traveled in many ways the paths of beauty" and has encouraged, inspired and accompanied art and artists in fields such as architecture, sculpture, painting, miniatures, musical works, literature and the theater.

"Could mankind today," asked the Holy Father, "enjoy such a vast artistic patrimony if the Christian community had not encouraged and supported the creativity of countless artists, proposing to them, as a model and source of inspiration, the beauty of Christ, the splendor of the Father?"

Thanking artists for their work, the Pope encouraged them to help "promote a new Christian humanism" which could become "an itinerary of dialogue and peace among peoples."

The Coordinating Council Between Pontifical Academies, is comprised of the presidents of the Pontifical Academies of St. Thomas Aquinas, Theology, the Immaculata, the International Marian, Fine Arts and Letters of the Virtuosi of the Pantheon, Roman Academy of Archeology and the "Cultorum Martyrum" Academy.