Fr. George Rutler on the Catholic Artist

Fr. Rutler has written an insightful reflection on the “Mass for Artists” celebrated recently at his own church of Our Saviour’s.  The final passage of his essay takes up a memorable example Fr. Rutler gave in his sermon on that day.

“Last Sunday, our church was overflowing for a Solemn High Mass to inaugurate a Society of Catholic Artists, founded at the initiative of Catholic painters, musicians, actors and writers. Whatever will be realized from this, it certainly is a hopeful sign in an age whose potential has often been thwarted by a misuse of art to diminish the human spirit. May it someday be said of these good people what was inscribed on the wall of a church in Leicester, England, during the iconoclastic period of the Protectorate: “In the year 1654 when all things were, throughout this nation, either demolished or profaned, Sir Robert Shirley, Baronet, founded and built this church. He it is whose singular praise it is to have done the best things in the worst times, and to have hoped them in the most calamitous.”

For the full text:

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/philosophy/ph0049.htm