Pope calls artists to be 'custodians of the beatitudes' during Jubilee

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Artists and cultural figures must be "custodians of the beatitudes," embracing their vocation to create beauty, reveal truth and inspire hope in a troubled world, Pope Francis wrote to people participating in the Jubilee for Artists and the World of Culture.

"Art is not a luxury, but a necessity of the spirit. It is not an escape, but a responsibility, an invitation to action, a call, a cry," said the homily Pope Francis prepared for the Jubilee Mass Feb. 16 in St. Peter's Basilica.

Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, celebrated the Mass with artists from more than 100 countries and read the pope's homily during the liturgy.

"To instruct in beauty is to instruct in hope, and hope is never separated from the drama of existence -- it crosses the daily struggle, the fatigue of living, the challenges of our time," the homily said.

Pope Francis was unable to attend the Mass because he was hospitalized for treatment of a respiratory tract infection. He had also missed the audience he planned with artists and other Jubilee pilgrims Feb. 15.

In a message for the midday Angelus, released by the Vatican after the Mass, Pope Francis wrote that art is "a universal language that spreads beauty and unites peoples, contributing to bringing harmony into the world and silencing every cry of war."

At the beginning of the Jubilee Mass, Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça blessed artists and cultural leaders, calling them "cultural prophets" and "drivers of peace" and praying for their vocations.

Reflecting on the beatitudes from the day's Gospel account from St. Luke, the pope's prepared homily said that "artists and people of culture are called to be witnesses to the radical vision of the beatitudes," emphasizing that their mission is to "give voice to the voiceless" and "transform pain into hope."

At the heart of the beatitudes, he said, is a divine reversal of worldly expectations -- where the poor, the meek, the persecuted and the suffering are the ones truly blessed. "Art is called to participate in this revolution," he said, urging artists to "bow before the wounds of the world, listen to the cry of the poor, the suffering, the persecuted, refugees, and those imprisoned."

Particularly in a time of deep social, economic and spiritual crises, Pope Francis wrote, artists play a crucial role in ensuring that humanity does not lose sight of the "horizon of hope."

Yet that hope is not a "comfortable refuge" but "a fire that burns and illuminates like the word of God," he said.

"For this reason," the pope wrote, "authentic art is always an encounter with mystery -- with a beauty that overtakes us, with a pain that interrogates us, with a truth that calls to us."

Particularly at a time when "new walls are raised, in which differences become pretexts for division rather than opportunities for mutual enrichment," cultural figures "are called to build bridges, to create spaces of encounter and dialogue, to illuminate minds and warm hearts," he said.

Later that evening, after St. Peter's Basilica was closed to the public, participants in the Jubilee were scheduled to cross through the basilica's Holy Door and partake in a quiet, contemplative walkthrough of the basilica's interior.

Presenting the Jubilee's events at a press conference Feb. 12, Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça explained how artists have a special relationship with the basilica as a place where faith, history and artistic genius converge in their highest form.

And in welcoming the artists into the basilica for Mass, he began his opening prayer with a reference to one of Pope Francis' favorite artists, the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, who famously wrote: "Beauty will save the world."

"The beauty that saves the world is manifested in Christ," the cardinal said, praying that artists would embrace their vocation with courage, offering their challenges and uncertainties in service of the church and the world.