SACRED ART

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27096, 20 July 1953, Page 10

SACRED ART

VATICAN’S REMINDER OF PURPOSE (From a Reuter Correspondent) VATICAN CITY. Sacred art may move with the times but it must never forget its aim “to lift man’s soul up to God,” according to a new Vatican review devoted to problems of religious art all over the world. The review. “Faith and Art,” is edited by Monsignor Giovanni Costantini, president of the Central Pontifical Commission for Sacred Art in Italy. The first number told artists: “The world moves on, and art must be an expression of its period. Today’s artists have technical means such as reinforced concrete and loudspeakers, undreamed of in the past. Let artists use even the most modern means to praise God—but let them build real churches, not halls or ‘garages.’ ” Last year, the Vatican’s Holy Office, the supreme tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church in matters of faith and morals, ordered bishops throughout the world to remove from all sacred buildings statues and pictures of “depraved or deformed art.” It ordered bishops to commission artists “who are outstanding for their technique and who are capable of expressing sincere faith and piety.”