Pope Francis on the subject of museums

As those who follow us without preconceptions know, Finestre Sull’Arte has always been a space open to everyone, always open to discussion and dialogue, respectful of everyone’s ideas. And, if the latter are intelligent, we do not care which side they come from. This is why we decided to publish today, on our website, an excerpt from the book My Idea of Art by Pope Francis, published by Mondadori and released at the end of 2015. In the words of Pope Francis some ideas recur that underlie the work of us at Finestre Sull’Arte: art as the heritage of all, as a form of dialogue, as a testimony of the past that allows us to look to the future. Art, in essence, is inclusion-a concept that, unfortunately, is becoming more and more distant even from those who should be following, out of commonality, the pope’s words. A very modern piece then, brief but offering several insights, and not only about art. Happy reading.

Pope Francis. Credit

Let museums be open to all. If the pope has museums it is precisely because of this! Because art can be an extraordinary vehicle to tell men and women all over the world, with simplicity, the good news of God becoming man for us, because he loves us! And it is good, this! And the Vatican Museums must always be the place of beauty and welcome. They must welcome new forms of art. They must open their doors wide to people from all over the world. To be an instrument of dialogue between cultures and religions, an instrument of peace. Be alive! Not dusty collections of the past only for the “elect” and the “wise,” but a vital reality that knows how to guard that past in order to tell it to the people of today, beginning with the humblest, and thus dispose themselves, all together, with confidence to the present and also to the future. Art has in itself a salvific dimension and must open itself to everything and everyone, and to each offer consolation and hope. This is why the Church must promote the use of art in her work of evangelization, looking to the past but also to the many current forms of expression. We should not be afraid to find and use new symbols, new forms of art, new languages, even those that seem uninteresting to those who evangelize or to curators but are instead important to people because they can speak to people.

That is why, a while ago, some homeless people in Rome visited the Vatican Museums and were able to admire the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican Museums are everyone’s home; their doors are always open to everyone. They bear witness to the artistic and spiritual aspirations of humanity and the search for that supreme beauty that finds its fulfillment in God. And the poor are at the center of the Gospel, which is the greatest thing we have; they are the privileged ones of divine mercy. If you take the poor out of the Gospel, nothing is understood anymore. So why should they not enter the Sistine Chapel? Maybe because they don’t have the money to pay for the ticket? I have been criticized for this, I know, I have also been criticized for having showers for the poor put under Bernini’s colonnade. I repeat: the poor are at the center of the Gospel, we must never forget that.

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