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For Pope Francis, art is a humanistic enterprise as important as prayer What does Pope Francis's taste in art, music and film say about him?
(34 minutes later)
The wide-ranging and audacious interview given by Pope Francis to 16 Jesuit journals worldwide is already making waves for its frank talk about social issues and its argument that the church should be a "home for all". But Francis's big interview has another important component: it features extensive discussion of culture, as it figures in Francis's own life and as a portal into Christian thought.The wide-ranging and audacious interview given by Pope Francis to 16 Jesuit journals worldwide is already making waves for its frank talk about social issues and its argument that the church should be a "home for all". But Francis's big interview has another important component: it features extensive discussion of culture, as it figures in Francis's own life and as a portal into Christian thought.
The first Jesuit pope turns out to be a voracious cultural aficionado – "a Jesuit must be creative," Francis says at one point – but do his literary and artistic inclinations reveal anything about his religious orientation? Well, there's no overarching link among the many cultural touchstones – art, music, literature, cinema – that Francis drawn on in the interview. That pluralism is in itself a statement, however. For the pope, art is not mere illustration or aesthetic play, but a humanistic enterprise as important and as fundamental as work or prayer. As Francis says, "even the forms for expressing truth can be multiform."The first Jesuit pope turns out to be a voracious cultural aficionado – "a Jesuit must be creative," Francis says at one point – but do his literary and artistic inclinations reveal anything about his religious orientation? Well, there's no overarching link among the many cultural touchstones – art, music, literature, cinema – that Francis drawn on in the interview. That pluralism is in itself a statement, however. For the pope, art is not mere illustration or aesthetic play, but a humanistic enterprise as important and as fundamental as work or prayer. As Francis says, "even the forms for expressing truth can be multiform."
Visual artVisual art
In the interview, the pope once again argues for greater tolerance of homosexuality in the church. "God in creation has set us free," he says: "It is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person." So it's therefore doubly fascinating to see that the artist whom Francis holds in highest esteem is Caravaggio, the Baroque gay icon and street brawler who used prostitutes and rent boys as models for his work. (There's a particularly hunky Jesus by Caravaggio in the Vatican's own collection, if Francis wants to mosey over to the gallery after work one day.) Francis mentions Caravaggio three times during the interview and singles out the painter's Calling of Saint Matthew, of 1599–1600, in which Jesus points at the future apostle and Matthew recoils. "That's me. I feel like him," the pope says. "Here, this is me, a sinner on whom the Lord has turned his gaze. And this is what I said when they asked me if I would accept my election as pontiff."In the interview, the pope once again argues for greater tolerance of homosexuality in the church. "God in creation has set us free," he says: "It is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person." So it's therefore doubly fascinating to see that the artist whom Francis holds in highest esteem is Caravaggio, the Baroque gay icon and street brawler who used prostitutes and rent boys as models for his work. (There's a particularly hunky Jesus by Caravaggio in the Vatican's own collection, if Francis wants to mosey over to the gallery after work one day.) Francis mentions Caravaggio three times during the interview and singles out the painter's Calling of Saint Matthew, of 1599–1600, in which Jesus points at the future apostle and Matthew recoils. "That's me. I feel like him," the pope says. "Here, this is me, a sinner on whom the Lord has turned his gaze. And this is what I said when they asked me if I would accept my election as pontiff."
OperaOpera
At one point the conversation turns to global crises, and the interviewer asks if Christians have a duty to be optimistic. Francis demurs, suggesting that optimism is a mere human emotion, while God offers a higher and more holy virtue, namely hope. He makes the point with an interesting example: a riddle told in act two of Turandot, Puccini's entirely secular last opera of 1924, about a prince who falls in love with an icy Chinese princess. "Hope" is the answer to the riddle: what dies every morning and is reborn each night?At one point the conversation turns to global crises, and the interviewer asks if Christians have a duty to be optimistic. Francis demurs, suggesting that optimism is a mere human emotion, while God offers a higher and more holy virtue, namely hope. He makes the point with an interesting example: a riddle told in act two of Turandot, Puccini's entirely secular last opera of 1924, about a prince who falls in love with an icy Chinese princess. "Hope" is the answer to the riddle: what dies every morning and is reborn each night?
MusicMusic
Francis turns out to have a marked taste for classical music, notably Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. All of those composers wrote liturgical music – Francis especially likes Bach's Saint Matthew Passion and Mozart's Mass in C Minor – but the pope also admires a thornier composer: Richard Wagner, the megalomaniacal German genius whose views on Christianity were, to put it mildly, idiosyncratic.Francis turns out to have a marked taste for classical music, notably Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. All of those composers wrote liturgical music – Francis especially likes Bach's Saint Matthew Passion and Mozart's Mass in C Minor – but the pope also admires a thornier composer: Richard Wagner, the megalomaniacal German genius whose views on Christianity were, to put it mildly, idiosyncratic.
Wagner, for Francis, is a little heavy: "I like to listen to him, but not all the time." His favorite recording of the Ring Cycle is by Wilhelm Furtwängler, a relatively safe choice. Yet Francis also, surprisingly, has a deep appreciation for Parsifal – Wagner's final opera, which stages a Christian rite in quasi-Buddhist terms and which Nietzsche famously called blasphemous.Wagner, for Francis, is a little heavy: "I like to listen to him, but not all the time." His favorite recording of the Ring Cycle is by Wilhelm Furtwängler, a relatively safe choice. Yet Francis also, surprisingly, has a deep appreciation for Parsifal – Wagner's final opera, which stages a Christian rite in quasi-Buddhist terms and which Nietzsche famously called blasphemous.
Later in the interview, when talking about how the church must abandon mistaken dogmas, Francis comes back to Parsifal and uses the hero's development from ignorance to knowledge as a metaphor for how "the thinking of the church must recover genius."Later in the interview, when talking about how the church must abandon mistaken dogmas, Francis comes back to Parsifal and uses the hero's development from ignorance to knowledge as a metaphor for how "the thinking of the church must recover genius."
FilmFilm
Francis notes that, when he taught secondary school in Argentina, he sent his students' writings to Jorge Luis Borges. (Borges's secretary taught Francis to play piano; Buenos Aires, one gathers, was a small town then.)Francis notes that, when he taught secondary school in Argentina, he sent his students' writings to Jorge Luis Borges. (Borges's secretary taught Francis to play piano; Buenos Aires, one gathers, was a small town then.)
But the pope then steers the conversation to the movies. In line with his modest and humble public image, Francis exhibits a strong taste for Italian neorealist cinema, which eschewed Hollywood razzle-dazzle and told morally powerful stories set among the working class. The pope says his favorite film is La Strada, Federico Fellini's early neorealist fable, featuring Giulietta Masina as a waifish young woman who travels Italy with an itinerant circus strongman.But the pope then steers the conversation to the movies. In line with his modest and humble public image, Francis exhibits a strong taste for Italian neorealist cinema, which eschewed Hollywood razzle-dazzle and told morally powerful stories set among the working class. The pope says his favorite film is La Strada, Federico Fellini's early neorealist fable, featuring Giulietta Masina as a waifish young woman who travels Italy with an itinerant circus strongman.
He sees a parallel in the film to the life of his namesake Saint Francis of Assisi – not an unthinkable idea, given that Fellini had co-written an earlier film about the wandering Catholic friar.He sees a parallel in the film to the life of his namesake Saint Francis of Assisi – not an unthinkable idea, given that Fellini had co-written an earlier film about the wandering Catholic friar.
As a child, the pope adds, he also watched "all of the Italian movies with Anna Magnani and Aldo Fabrizi," and he singles out Roberto Rossellini's Rome: Open City, the truly great 1945 war film about the Nazi occupation of the Italian capital. It's a revealing choice, even more so than La Strada.As a child, the pope adds, he also watched "all of the Italian movies with Anna Magnani and Aldo Fabrizi," and he singles out Roberto Rossellini's Rome: Open City, the truly great 1945 war film about the Nazi occupation of the Italian capital. It's a revealing choice, even more so than La Strada.
Rome: Open City stars Fabrizi as a priest, Don Pietro, who aids the Italian opposition and forms a close bond with an atheist, communist resistor. The priest is captured by German forces but refuses to break under interrogation. You're aiding someone who doesn't even believe in God, the Nazi major tells him. To which Don Pietro responds: "I am a Catholic priest. I believe that anyone fighting for justice and liberty walks in the ways of the Lord. And the ways of the Lord are infinite."Rome: Open City stars Fabrizi as a priest, Don Pietro, who aids the Italian opposition and forms a close bond with an atheist, communist resistor. The priest is captured by German forces but refuses to break under interrogation. You're aiding someone who doesn't even believe in God, the Nazi major tells him. To which Don Pietro responds: "I am a Catholic priest. I believe that anyone fighting for justice and liberty walks in the ways of the Lord. And the ways of the Lord are infinite."
Of all Francis's cultural choices, Rome: Open City may be the most auspicious. In its message of brotherhood and love across religious lines – in which a priest and an atheist are shown to be united by a common humanity – Rossellini's film has a special relevance today; it's a model for how to break free from the exhausting and unhelpful opposition between dogmatic ecclesiasts on the one hand, and obnoxious Dawkins-style unbelievers on the other.Of all Francis's cultural choices, Rome: Open City may be the most auspicious. In its message of brotherhood and love across religious lines – in which a priest and an atheist are shown to be united by a common humanity – Rossellini's film has a special relevance today; it's a model for how to break free from the exhausting and unhelpful opposition between dogmatic ecclesiasts on the one hand, and obnoxious Dawkins-style unbelievers on the other.
No doubt the Catholic church has played its part in encouraging that cleavage, and Francis is no apostate; for all his warm talk on abortion and homosexuality he still opposes both. Yet in these first months of his papacy Francis has encouraged a more generous, more expansive vision of the church that even atheists should admire – one wherein love between Christians and unbelievers need not be just the stuff of art.No doubt the Catholic church has played its part in encouraging that cleavage, and Francis is no apostate; for all his warm talk on abortion and homosexuality he still opposes both. Yet in these first months of his papacy Francis has encouraged a more generous, more expansive vision of the church that even atheists should admire – one wherein love between Christians and unbelievers need not be just the stuff of art.
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