I knew that Rupnik was a prolific artist especially of mosaics. I don’t like his art and that was before we knew what we know. But, art is art and this is art whether you like it or not.
As I have written before, I was not pleased that two stained glass windows installed in a South Georgia parish, my first assignment, were removed. These windows, while quite controversial in style, were commissioned by the parish council at the time. A monk, Fr. Cyril Methodious, created these windows and all the windows in the church. These were far from cheap even in 1980.
Here’s a list of where you can fine Rupnik’s art:
Lourdes. Fatima. Padre Pio’s crypt in San Giovanni Rotondo. Pope St. John Paul II’s shrines in Krakow and Washington, DC. Madrid’s cathedral adoration chapel. Aparecida. The Redemptoris mater chapel of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. Even the image most closely associated with Pope Francis’s signature Year of Mercy.
I visited Padre Pio’s crypt in San Giovanni Rotondo in 2013 and took these photos:
Should all his art be removed and placed in a secular venue or can the Church celebrate the good someone has done while condemning the evil.
Should Italians have returned their trains back chronic tardiness once Mussolini was executed for his war crimes?
5 comments:
His art should stand on its own merits
Benvenuto Cellini was a monster by most measures, yet his art was sought by Popes and cardinals and remains important to this day. I prefer to let the art stand on its own merits and deny the artist protection from discovery or prosecution. Let his art, life, and soul stand before the judges of those jurisdictions.
This type of art has wide appeal; but for me, not so much. I cannot help associating it with the seasonal missalettes and music issues that have had such a deleterious impact on our worship.
I remember when the war in the Ukraine started the Woke idiots wanted to ban Tchaikovsky’s music.
With certain things I must be living under a rock as I do not know who this priest is. Perhaps I'm too secluded in the East to make any associations. That aside, what little I've seen of his work is simply not my taste. If it was me giving the nod, this wouldn't have been built in the first place. To tear it out now....is that really the best use of money? I don't know. If his crimes are that significant, then, I think the church can do better as the custodian of the saint's relics. Move the tomb to an existing church and relegate this building to "profane but not sordid use", or just tear it down.
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