Selling the Vatican?
I’m certain everyone has heard of the common allusions to the Church’s “avarice” for owning a lot of gold and artworks that, if sold, could possibly feed the entire world. We have also heard of the usual arguments against this - that the Church is the biggest charitable institution in the world, and that keeping such art provides the Church with constant revenue. However, there is one argument not often seen, but which, I think, has a far deeper message than the pragmatic ones.
Being struck and overcome by the beauty of Christ is a more real, more profound knowledge than mere rational deduction. Of course we must not underrate the importance of theological reflection, of exact and precise theological thought; it remains absolutely necessary. But to move from here to disdain or to reject the impact produced by the response of the heart in the encounter with beauty as a true form of knowledge would impoverish us and dry up our faith and our theology. We must rediscover this form of knowledge; it is a pressing need of our time.
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To admire the icons and the great masterpieces of Christian art in general, leads us on an inner way, a way of overcoming ourselves; thus in this purification of vision that is a purification of the heart, it reveals the beautiful to us, or at least a ray of it. In this way we are brought into contact with the power of the truth. I have often affirmed my conviction that the true apology of Christian faith, the most convincing demonstration of its truth against every denial, are the saints, and the beauty that the faith has generated. Today, for faith to grow, we must lead ourselves and the persons we meet to encounter the saints and to enter into contact with the Beautiful.
Above is an excerpt from Contemplation of Beauty by none other than our art-loving Pope Benedict XVI (prior to his papacy). This is precisely why the wonderful and awesome (in the fullest sense of the word) Christian art is kept within the Church - in the hope that someday, as Dostoevsky had said, “beauty will save the world.”
