255 artists to meet Pope to revive relations

(November 6, 2009) More than 250 artists from around the world will meet Pope Benedict XVI this month to revive the Church's relations with the art world, a Vatican official said on Thursday. The November 21st meeting at the suggestive and famed Sistine Chapel will be "a representative moment showing the will to dialogue between the church and the art world", said Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture. Addressing a press conference to release the programme, he explained how the meeting will be celebrated on the tenth anniversary of Pope John Paul II's “Letter to Artists” and the forty-fifth anniversary of Paul VI's meeting with artists. According to the archbishop, 255 artists have accepted the invitation and are coming from places all over the world. They will be divided into categories such as painting and sculpture; architecture; literature and poetry; music and song; cinema, theatre, dance and photography. Before Pope Benedict addresses the artists, the Sistine Chapel Choir will sing for the gathering. The meeting will be followed by a reception in the Vatican Museum where the artists will receive a medal in the Pope's name.