Pope receives church museum workers: everyone has a right to beauty, especially the poor

Yesterday, Pope Francis received in audience at the Clementine Hall of the Vatican Apostolic Palace the workers of ecclesiastical museums, represented by 400 members of the Association of Italian Ecclesiastical Museums (AMEI). The pontiff first thanked the workers of ecclesiastical museums for their commitment, and then addressed a message on what he sees as the role of heritage. According to the pope, cultural and natural heritage constitute “part of the common identity of a place and the basis for building a habitable city,” but also how, at the same time, this heritage is threatened.

Responding to threats requires “integrating the history, culture, and architecture of a given place,” and making heritage accessible to all. In this situation, the museum plays a key role: “it is about,” Pope Francis said, “helping people to live together, to live well together. In this perspective, it is normal to collaborate with museums of other religious communities. Works of art and the memory of different traditions and lifestyles speak of the humanity that makes us brothers and sisters.” According to the pontiff, museums can improve the quality of people’s lives, create spaces for relationships and community, both in big cities and small ones. That of museum workers is an important job because “everyone has a right to beautiful culture,” “especially the poorest and the last, who must enjoy it as a gift from God.”

Finally, the pope stressed the importance of dialogue with contemporary artists, a work “of wisdom and openness, not always appreciated,” but indispensable to ensure that the Church continues to have a lasting and stable relationship with art as it has always been over the centuries: “contemporary art,” the pontiff said, “transposes the languages to which especially young people are accustomed.” Catholics should not forget their sensitivity to contemporary art, remembering that it “can be an important place of confrontation and dialogue with today’s culture.”

Pope receives church museum workers: everyone has a right to beauty, especially the poor

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