Pope Francis Meets 200 Artists in the Sistine Chapel for Vatican Modern Art Collection's 50th Anniversary

Pope Francis convened over 200 artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers in the Sistine Chapel on June 23, 2023, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Vatican Museums' Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art. The event, exceptionally held in the chapel, included notable figures such as Caetano Veloso, Amelie Nothomb, Ken Loach, Abel Ferrara, Jhumpa Lahiri, Andres Serrano, Ludovico Einaudi, and many others. In his homily, the Pope praised artists as "allies of God's sign" who can "dream new versions of the world" and urged them to remember the poor, who are "Christ's favorites." The collection, initiated by Pope Paul VI and inaugurated in June 1973, aims to reestablish dialogue between the Church and contemporary culture. It comprises around 8,000 works by artists including van Gogh, Bacon, Chagall, de Chirico, and Matisse, largely donated following Paul VI's 1964 invitation to artists in the same chapel.