IT IS TIME TO RECREATE THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN CHURCH AND ART

VATICAN CITY, FEB 18, 2000 (VIS) - The Jubilee of Artists began this morning, the feast of Blessed Fra Angelico, with Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, presided over by Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, president of the Vatican's central Jubilee committee.

In his homily the cardinal told the artists that they "represent quite simply mankind, mankind in its integrity, which cannot be separated from the artistic dimension. God made man the creature also as creator. ... And what a prestigious artist was this God who made us one by one, each a unique being, each bearing His authentic signature!

"It is incumbent on each one of us to be, as He was, an artist, certainly not by profession but by birth. And your Jubilee pilgrimage happily reminds us of all the nobility of this birth which makes us ... 'creative' creatures. I like the witty remark by one philosopher: 'God created man as little as possible,' as a kind of rough draft of His image, entrusting to each one the task of refining His work."

Following Mass, the Pope arrived in the basilica and addressed those present, affirming that "it is time to recreate that fruitful alliance between the Church and artists that has amply marked Christianity's journey over two millennia. Dear faithful artists, this presupposes your ability to deeply live the reality of Christian faith, in order that it become a generator of culture and give the world new 'epiphanies' of divine beauty, reflected in creation."

"The Jubilee," he continued, "solicits us to welcome this grace of resurrection" that it may heal our lives "not just from sin, but also from the dregs that sin leaves within us, even after we are reconciled with God. ... The conversion of heart is, so to say, the work of art that the Spirit and our liberty create together."

"If artistic creation needs 'inspiration', the spiritual path has need of grace."

The Pope stated that "if we are capable of discerning, in the multiple manifestations of beauty, a ray of the supreme beauty, then art becomes a path towards God, and stimulates artists to marry their creative talent with a commitment to live ever more in conformity with divine law."

Today's Jubilee celebration, he said, "is an invitation to practice the stupendous 'art' of sanctity." During this process "grace sustains us, also by means of that ecclesiastical fellowship through which the Church renders herself mother to everyone. ... Is not this, perhaps, the meaning of the 'mater Ecclesia' which Bernini so magnificently evoked in the colonnade's solemn embrace? Those masterful arms are, nonetheless, maternal arms that open to all humanity. Within them, all members of the Church may feel cheered as they follow the pilgrim path, on the journey to the ultimate homeland."

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