Pope Leo: the Church needs artists

Art can become “a form of cultural and spiritual regeneration,” Pope Leo XIV said, when it “resists homogenization, slows the gaze, and compels us to pause before that which refuses to be consumed.” The Holy Father offered a reflection on the relationship between the Church and art in an address to participants in an encounter promoted by the Dicastery for Culture and Education entitled “The Art of Possibility: Weaving Together.” Recalling Saint Paul VI’s words to artists, Pope Leo said the Church needs artists who can collaborate in the ministry of preaching and making the world of the spirit, of God, “accessible and understandable.” “This is true especially in this era of artificial intelligence,” Pope Leo continued, “when it has become urgent to distinguish human art from what is produced by machines.”