Pope Francis, a Pontiff Close to Art and Artists, Dies at 88

Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, died at 7:35 AM, aged 88. His pontificate was marked by a deep engagement with contemporary art, which he saw as a tool for collective progress, social transformation, and evangelization. In 2017, he published "La mia idea di arte," asserting the centrality of contemporary artistic languages in addressing poverty, marginalization, environmental crisis, and loss of meaning. In June 2023, he met hundreds of artists in the Sistine Chapel to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Vatican Museums' Collection of Modern Art, calling artists "custodians of beauty." In 2024, he became the first pope to personally visit the Venice Biennale, where the Holy See's pavilion, curated by Chiara Parisi and Bruno Racine, was housed in the Giudecca women's prison. Titled "Con i miei occhi," it featured eight international artists including Maurizio Cattelan, Sonia Gomes, Claire Fontaine, and Marco Perego & Zoe Saldana, focusing on human rights and dignity. Francis warned that "the market risks stealing innocence from art" and urged artists to be "allies of the Church." His cultural initiatives spanned the Jubilee, prisons, architecture, painting, urban dance by Bintou Dembélé, and the material mysticism of Corita Kent, reweaving the broken threads between Gospel and art.