An appeal "for the return to an authentically Catholic sacred art..."

From Sandro Magister of Chiesa:

A few days before the meeting announced for November 21 between the pope and artists in the Sistine Chapel, an appeal anticipating its principal motivation has already come to Benedict XVI's desk.

The appeal is "for the return to an authentically Catholic sacred art," and was signed not by artists, but by scholars and other figures who are passionately concerned, for various reasons, about the fate of Christian art. Among all: Nikos Salingaros, Steven J. Schloeder, Steen Heidemann, Duncan G. Stroik, Pietro De Marco, Martin Mosebach, Enrico Maria Radaelli.

Mosebach is an established German writer whom Joseph Ratzinger knows well. His latest book: "The heresy of the shapeless. The Roman liturgy and its enemy" was published this year, including an Italian edition by Cantagalli. And it is a stunning apologia on behalf of great Christian art, and more than that, of the Catholic liturgy itself as art. With biting invective against the iconoclasm that reigns today within the Catholic Church itself.

Radaelli, a disciple of the great Catholic philosopher and philologist Romano Amerio, is a sophisticated scholar of theological aesthetics. His masterpiece is: "Ingresso alla bellezza [Entryway to beauty]," released in 2008, a magnificent introduction into the mystery of God through his "Imago," which is Christ. Beauty as the manifestation of the truth.

The appeal was born also from seminars held in recent months in the library of the pontifical commission for the cultural heritage of the Church, hosted by the vice-president of this Vatican commission, Benedictine abbot Michael J. Zielinski. Participants in the meetings included Fr. Nicola Bux and Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, consultants for the office of papal liturgical celebrations. Fr. Lang is also an official at the congregation for divine worship. But no clergyman figures among the promoters of the appeal, not to mention any Vatican official. The signatories are laymen, of various competencies and professions.

The text of the appeal has sections on "The Church and Art," "The reason of the present situation," "Theological References," "The Commission," "The Artists," "The Sacred space," "Sacred Music and Liturgical Chant," and "Liturgical Adaptation and Naodomia." The entire text can be accessed as a PDF from this website. Those wishing to sign the appeal can do so by sending an email to [email protected] with your name, profession and place of residence.

Ignatius Press has published books by both Martin Mosebach and Fr. Uwe Michael Lang. Here are excerpts from those books:







Here is a review of Mosebach's book:



And a related book:

Comments

[Ed Peters]

You know what bugs me about this, and has for years? That no one sees the simple solution. We get the art we pay for.

If this crud qua art sat on the shelf, or sat in the shed in the artist's backyard, year in and year out, they would (A) eventually stop making it and (B) even if they didn't, it wouldn't bug the rest of us.

Wanna turn art around in a NY minute? Start paying for good stuff.