20th Anniversary of St. John Paul’s Letter to Artists

On April 4, 1999, the playwright and former actor Pope John Paul II wrote to the artists of the world, requesting their cooperation in a renaissance of culture.

…Every genuine inspiration… contains some tremor of that “breath” with which the Creator Spirit suffused the work of creation from the very beginning. Overseeing the mysterious laws governing the universe, the divine breath of the Creator Spirit reaches out to human genius and stirs its creative power. He touches it with a kind of inner illumination which brings together the sense of the good and the beautiful, and he awakens energies of mind and heart which enable it to conceive an idea and give it form in a work of art. It is right then to speak, even if only analogically, of “moments of grace”, because the human being is able to experience in some way the Absolute who is utterly beyond…

The remarkable letter may be found here.