Vatican Museum: Beauty that Unites! 54

Beauty creates communion. It unites onlookers from a distance, uniting past, present and future. Pope Francis has recalled this on a number of occasions. The Church has always translated the universality of the Good News into the language of art. From this premise, this dramatic moment in history characterized by uncertainty and isolation, gives rise to this initiative which is a partnership between the Vatican Museum and Vatican News: Masterpieces from the Vatican Collection accompanied by comments from the words of the Popes.

Nicolas Poussin, Martyrdom of St Elmo, 1628ca. Vatican Museums, Pinacoteca © Musei Vaticani

Suffering is also an invitation to manifest the moral greatness of man,
his spiritual maturity. Proof of this has been given,
down through the generations, by the martyrs
and confessors of Christ, faithful to the words:
"And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.” …
And we ask all you who suffer to support us.
We ask precisely you who are weak to become a source of strength
for the Church and humanity.
In the terrible battle between the forces of good and evil,
revealed to our eyes by our modern world,
may your suffering in union with the Cross of Christ be victorious!

(Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Salvifici Doloris, 11 February 1984)

Under the direction of: Paolo Ondarza

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