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Saturday, December 12, 2020

YOU CAN MAKE THINGS UP AS A KIND OF APOLOGETIC

 Maybe in a science fiction museum of art this could be appreciated before a laser vaporizes it? Vatican News puts  💄 on a 🐷! But what makes me laugh is that way back in the 80’s when I started teaching RCIA classes on papal teachings and infallibility, I taught there are always parameters to papal authority. For example, if a pope were to teach that Jesus was delivered to earth by alien astronauts, Catholics had a moral obligation to dismiss the pope’s teaching as ludicrous. O my......

And please note that the Vatican reporter refuses to attach his name to this report or 💄!

Lighting of the Nativity scene in Saint Peter's SquareLighting of the Nativity scene in Saint Peter's Square  (Vatican Media)

Pope: Artists “transmit truth and beauty” through artistic creativity

Artists have a lofty and demanding calling, especially at a time when the pandemic has made shadows grow deeper, Pope Francis said on Saturday morning as he met with artists taking part in this year’s Christmas concert. The beauty of art, he told them, can inspire hope, harmony, and peace.

By Vatican News staff reporter

In this critical historical moment, in which humanity is rediscovering our dependence on one another due to the pandemic, art has a crucial role to play, Pope Francis said on Saturday.

Speaking with artists who will be performing at this year’s Christmas concert, the Holy Father shared “a few thoughts on art and its role at this critical moment in history.”

From art to empathy

Artistic creation, the “perception and contemplation of beauty,” can be understood “in terms of three movements,” the Pope said: the wonder and amazement produced in the senses; the deeper appreciation that “touches the depths of our heart and soul” awaking memories, images and emotions; and “the sense of hope that can light up our world” which is generated by art.

These “outer and inner movements merge and in turn affect our way of relating to those all around us,” the Pope said. “They generate empathy, the ability to understand others, with whom we have so much in common.  We sense a bond with them, a bond no longer vague, but real and shared.”

Harmony, beauty, goodness

“This three-fold movement of wonder, personal discovery, and sharing produces a feeling of peace,” said Pope Francis, which “frees us from the desire to dominate others, makes us sensitive to their difficulties, and prompts us to live in harmony with all.” This harmony, he added, is “deeply associated with beauty and goodness.”

Generating light in a time of pandemic

The bond between harmony, beauty, and goodness, can be seen even in the book of Genesis, where, the Pope explains, the adjective “good” can be broadly translated as “harmonious.” From the beauty of Creation, we can also understand, “in the face of that grandeur, our own place in the world,” the Pope said.

Artists understand this, he continued. They are the ones who, “as St John Paul II wrote, ‘perceive in themselves a kind of divine spark’” and feel called to put it at the service of humanity; the ones who, in the words of St Paul VI, are “lovers of beauty,” whom the world needs so as not to sink into despair.

Even “amid the anxiety provoked by the pandemic,” Pope Francis told artists, “your creativity can be a source of light.” He continued, “The crisis has made even denser the ‘dark clouds over a closed world,’ and this might seem to obscure the light of the divine, the eternal.  Let us not yield to that illusion, but seek the light of Christmas, which dispels the darkness of sorrow and pain.”

Called to transmit truth and beauty

At the close of his address, the Holy Father appealed to artists as “guardians of beauty in our world,” whose “lofty and demanding calling” is to transmit truth and beauty with “pure and dispassionate hands”:

For these instil joy in human hearts and are, in fact, ‘a precious fruit that endures through time, unites generations and makes them share in a sense of wonder.’ Today, as always, that beauty appears to us in the lowliness of the Christmas crèche. Today, as always, we celebrate that beauty with hearts full of hope. 

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

"If I don't like it, it's not art."

"If I don't find it beautiful, it's not beautiful."

"The process of creating art doesn't matter, only the finished product."

"I've never seen anything like it before, therefore there must be something terribly wrong with it. Probably the artist was (choose one) Demon possessed, A modernist, A mason, a 'radical liberal,' Bugnini's ghost, aliens."

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

You pretty well nail it! Thanks.....

Anonymous said...

Oh, I know I nailed it. I knew that when I wrote it. Thank you for agreeing with me and proving me right.

Oh yes, you're welcome.

Anonymous said...

Well, A @8:25, as the saying goes, “Whatever floats your boat”. Or, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. Or...well I guess you catch my drift.
The Vatican has become a ship of fools, and it is no wonder so many laity have jumped the ship. I’m personally hanging on by a thread, and guarding very carefully where charitable donations go.

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

Frmjk @ 9:39, oh yes, you, though, are most welcomefor hitting the nail on the head for all of us and eternally indebted to you r weee...

Anonymous said...

That "article" is nothing but an official line press release/sales pitch, likely written by whatever Jesuit underling approved the thing...will not mention names, but the initials Antonio Spadaro come to mind. Perhaps assisted Austin Iverlegh, whose name I will also skip saying.

Anonymous said...

Dear anon@939.....just be openly honest and say, "it is hard to be modest when one is perfect in every way."

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

I cannot figure out where the third wise astronaut, I mean, wise man is? Maybe he was wise enough to stay away from this travesty of the Nativity.

rcg said...

There some discussion about that Third Spaceman. The first brought gold, and the second spaceman brought frankincense, but the third spaceman is still out looking for Musk. BRB!

Anonymous said...

I have only one question. (actually I have many but will only ask one) WHERE ARE THE GASOLINE PUMPS ?

Anonymous said...

Father Allan at 11:12PM

The third wise man said "I'm outta here"......and ran for the hills.......