Daniel del Castillo Gonz\u00e1lez<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWeaving Networks with the Worlds of Culture, Art, the Economy and Sport.\u201d This was the title of the cultural meeting between Pope Leo XIV and more than 15,000 people at Madrid\u2019s Movistar Arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among the many speeches and performances, the testimony of the Spanish actor Antonio Banderas was especially compelling. Referring to the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas<\/em>, he shared about the meaning of art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Holy Father, There are encounters whose value is measured not only by the time they occupy, but by their meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your presence in Madrid today, Holy Father, is not merely a visit. It is a gesture. A gesture of listening, of closeness, of dialogue with civil society, and civil society is undoubtedly grateful for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At times, that dialogue is best strengthened through a common language. That language is, and has often been throughout history, art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The relationship between the Catholic Church and art has not only been fruitful; it has been decisive. We need not fear being mistaken when we say that the Church has been the greatest patron and producer of art in human history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the heart of this creative impulse stands a figure who transcends centuries, styles, and cultures, and who has almost certainly been the most represented figure in the history of art: Jesus Christ. The great protagonist of the film of life. In every art form, Christ appears as a constant presence\u2014not as a repeated image, but as an icon of peace, love, and sacrifice, surrounded by inexhaustible mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could reduce my remarks simply to listing the great artists whose works have magnified the message that comes from the words of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could also limit myself to presenting a series of facts illustrating the path traveled together by the Church, artists, intellectuals, and philosophers. But today, Holy Father, I feel a certain obligation to offer a brief reflection aloud on my own experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To do so, I must go back in time to the Holy Week celebrations in my beloved M\u00e1laga during the 1960s. Those popular manifestations that take over the streets, unfolding a majestic ritual of art and faith, of roots and devotion. A multicolored prism of elegant beauty, a theatrical liturgy that each year transforms the city into a space where the artistic and the spiritual merge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And it was there, Holy Father, in that setting of anonymous popular art, when I was only four or five years old, that a question was born within me containing just one word: God?<\/strong> <\/strong>Little by little, I found answers. Some were as simple as the one I recognized in my mother\u2019s eyes as she fixed her gaze and her devoted heart upon the Virgin of Hope passing before us on her throne during those distant years. Others came through the voices of the singers of saetas<\/em>, piercing the clear spring air. Others came from the humble and good people of my city, who every year took\u2014and still take\u2014to the streets carrying their neighborhoods on their shoulders, bearing the sacred images that help them seek themselves while seeking God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And they do so by leaving behind the \u201cI\u201d in order to embrace the \u201cwe.\u201d From \u201cwe\u201d they move to \u201cthey,\u201d from \u201cthey\u201d to \u201ceveryone,\u201d from \u201ceveryone\u201d to the world, from the world to the universe, and from the universe to God. Then they return to earth with the intuition that God may be present in every particle, every molecule of every drop of water, every sea, every rose petal, every heartbeat, every sigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But art is not only beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Art is a question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is reflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is contrast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is the tension between what we know and what we intuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Art has been\u2014and must continue to be\u2014the mirror that reflects lives passing by the wounded neighbor without stopping. It is also the denunciation of empty creeds that have forgotten love. It is a warning voice for societies that have grown accustomed to injustice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Art must be an alternative to violence\u2014all forms of violence. Just as Christ himself did, the artist must act courageously and must not cease to be a critical voice toward society, toward art itself, and toward religion itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Holy Father, we share an obligation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are obliged to look, to see, and to try to understand the complexities of the human soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All human beings confront the great questions of existence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who are we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is the meaning of life and of suffering?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What does it truly mean to love our neighbor as ourselves?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What lies beyond?<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in that search, all of us draw nearer, perhaps without realizing it, to the transcendent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Holy Father,<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a world that races forward, that fragments itself, that at times oversimplifies everything, art helps us recover the depth and soul that are being threatened by artificial intelligences, which must serve human beings and not the other way around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A soul that whispers to us that there is something more. The constant whisper of hope in that something more. This encounter between the Church and civil society is not merely timely: it is necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We need to keep creating and sharing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To keep questioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To keep seeking beauty, yes...but also truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because wherever we dare to ask profound questions, a path always begins, a path that may lead us toward the spiritual, which is nothing other than the fraternity that beats in the heart of every human being and in the mysterious heart of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \"You say that times are bad. Be better yourselves, and the times will be better. You are the times.\" <\/em>So said Saint Augustine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Holy Father, I am here because of Godspell<\/em>. Godspell<\/em> is a musical created in your country of origin. The Spanish translation of Godspell<\/em> is 'El Hechizo de Dios'<\/em> (\u201cThe Spell of God\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today I stand here confessing that I have been a victim of God\u2019s spell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you very much.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Daniel del Castillo Gonz\u00e1lez \u201cWeaving Networks with the Worlds of Culture, Art, the Economy and Sport.\u201d This was the title of the cultural meeting between Pope Leo XIV and more than 15,000 people at Madrid\u2019s Movistar Arena. Among the many speeches and performances, the testimony of the Spanish actor Antonio Banderas was especially compelling. Referring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":758,"featured_media":91028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/sv7tvGGvpvo","video_descarga":"https:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bncantoniobanderas.mp4","international_url":"https:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bncantoniobanderas.mp4","type":"bn","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/758"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91044"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91047,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91044\/revisions\/91047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Authorities,
Dear friends,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n