Certainly under the new administration of the Church we are hearing much about the duty to the poor. Pope Francis feels the need to live and dress modestly – and even the liturgy, we now are informed by various parties, should reflect the poverty of the Church. But will this ethic be consistently applied ? We have our doubts. For Cardinal Ravasi is preparing the first Vatican exhibit at the Venice Biennial (Art Show) that will cost, depending on the source, between $1.3 and $3.5 million. And the art being exhibited – all acquired at immense cost by the Vatican – seems hardly representative of the Christian Art of the West or East.
See Le Forum Catholique (In French)
or
The work of one of the “artists” to be featured in the pavilion.
This initiative of Cardinal Ravasi was of course authorized under the prior pontificate. But even at this early stage it seems that the strictures of poverty may not apply to the Vatican bureaucracy and its cultural and media activity. And that was precisely the case already under Paul VI (the creation of the modern art gallery in the Vatican).
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