Vatican - Pope Benedict XVI wants to establish closer ties with representatives of the art world: as part of this effort, today he received more than 250 artists in the Sistine Chapel, a symbol of the golden age of relations between the artistic elite and the pope.
    "Through your art, you yourselves are proclaimers and witnesses of hope for humanity," said Benedict. At the same time, he urged the artists to protect themselves from "seductive, yet hypocritical" beauty that leads to "immorality, sin, or cheap provocations."
    Among the pope's guests in the Sistine Chapel were many renowned figures of Italian cultural life, including Oscar-winning director Giuseppe Tornatore, singer Andrea Bocelli, and ballerina Carla Fracci.
    Benedict recalled the famous history of the Sistine Chapel, where cardinals gather to elect a pope. "I myself experienced an extraordinary moment of my election as successor to the apostle Peter here," the pope stated.
    "Let these frescoes speak to us even today," he said, referring to Michelangelo's masterpiece The Last Judgment.
    The pope emphasized that the Church has a very close relationship with art, one that must be constantly strengthened and supported.
    "When faith meets art, a deep harmony arises, because both faith and art can and want to speak of God, to make the invisible visible," Benedict said Wednesday at the general audience.
    The president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Gianfranco Ravasi, described today's meeting as an expression of the effort for dialogue between the Church and the world of art, which will be developed in further stages.
    This is not a dialogue in the strict sense of the word, but a significant signal towards the art world, said Vatican expert Marco Politi. Regarding the fact that two-thirds of the invited were Italians, Politi stated that the pope will gradually invite more contemporary artists who are inspired by religion.
    The Vatican also wants to have its own pavilion at the contemporary art biennale in Venice in 2011. Artists, yet to be chosen, but who should come from all continents, are expected to work on the theme of Genesis.
    Today's meeting comes 45 years after a similar initiative by Paul VI and ten years after John Paul II's letter to artists, in which the pope emphasized how the Church needs art. The relationships between the Vatican and the world of art, which reached their peak during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, particularly declined at the beginning of the 19th century.