The artist who became Pope, and remained an artist at heart — that’s how some will remember John Paul II.

To patrons, benefactors and fans of the arts, he was one of the greatest sponsors of artistic endeavor ever to occupy the see of Peter.

To artists in every arena of visual, musical and verbal expression, he was “one of us” — a poet, playwright and performer who happened to have chosen the seminary over the stage.

To Catholics in both groups, he was an apostle of Christ who recognized the arts’ potential to guide the human heart into the heart of the Gospel.

And to the world at large, he was, among so many other things, a cultural scholar who saw in the creative genius of artists a reflection of God’s own, unlimited creative capacity.

“Every piece of art, be it religious or secular, be it a painting, a sculpture, a poem or any form of handicraft made by loving skill, is a sign and a symbol of the inscrutable secret of human existence, of man’s origin and destiny, of the meaning of his life and work,” he said in an address at the site of an ancient school of sacred art in Clonmacnois, Ireland, in September of 1979. “It speaks to us of the meaning of birth and death, of the greatness of man.”

Having thus declared his great love for art less than one year after his election to the see of St. Peter, the Holy Father would frequently go out of his way to encourage artists in pursuit of “the beautiful as a category of art” (November 1980 address at Munich, Germany).

He would also stimulate engagement with art among those whose only ability with art is the capacity to appreciate it. The creation of the Pontifical Council for Culture in 1982, the massive renovations throughout Rome in preparation for the Jubilee Year 2000, the naming of 45 Vatican-recommended films and the worldwide tours of works from the Vatican museums spring instantly to mind.

Naturally, as the head Christian disciple of his day, John Paul reserved his most ardent exhortations in the artistic arena for Christian artists. He spoke about their “special vocation” and urged them to generously turn their gifts toward helping the Church build a “civilization of love” based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Dear Artist …

If John Paul’s call to artists had been a constant, if understated, aspect of the first 20 years of his papacy, it became a full-blown ministry during the 21st.

It was on the doorstep of the Jubilee Year 2000, on the holiest day on the Christian calendar, that the Pope released his Letter to Artists. Many Catholic artists have since come to regard Easter Sunday, 1999, as something of a new Pentecost.

In the letter, more than 6,000 words long and written in a warmly personal tone that conveyed a sense of deep respect leavened by heartfelt affection, the Holy Father reminded Christian artists: “The close alliance that has always existed between the Gospel and art means that you are invited to use your creative intuition to enter into the heart of the mystery of the Incarnate God and at the same time into the mystery of man.”

Expect the letter’s effects to ripple well into the new century — thanks, in no small part, to its being received as a work of art in its own right.

“Pope John Paul II has scattered the culture of death by placing a torch in humanity’s corners,” says Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister Mary Paula Beierschmitt, a sculptor, painter, printmaker and founder of the American Academy of the Sacred Arts in Philadelphia.

“In the letter, as in all his writings, he shapes thoughts in sensitive and creative ways, using the means at his disposal to communicate the mind of Christ,” she said. “The letter meant a lot coming from him, both because of the authenticity and integrity of his apostleship and because of his being a great literary artist himself.” 

“John Paul has reaffirmed my vocation as an architect, in service of both God and man, and reminded me of the theological tradition that God’s ‘middle name’ is Beauty,” says Duncan Stroik, a professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame. The letter, he adds, eloquently explicated the Christian conviction that “the true artist will seek to imitate and honor God by building and painting works that are beautiful.”

To a person, all the artists who spoke with the Register about John Paul’s likely impact on the arts said, in so many words, that they received the Letter to Artists not as a discrete directive from an active papacy — but as a natural extension of the vicar of Christ’s consistent witness. For that reason, all agreed, the letter will guide their lives as well as their work.

“For me, personally, Pope John Paul II has been a father and a living icon of holy fatherhood,” says Catholic novelist and painter Michael D. O’Brien. “His entire life was poured out in a tireless effort to reconnect us to the great hierarchy of being that leads all the way up to our father in heaven. Pastor, teacher, evangelist, apostle, philosopher, playwright, poet — he embodied and modeled the Christian integration of truth and love. In his Letter to Artists, all his authority and personal gifts were brought to bear upon the question of the creative life. It will remain a guide for me throughout my life.”

“It was the Holy Father’s letter that began the process of my understanding the true intention of the art of music and the responsibility that I have as an artist,” says Catholic singer-songwriter Erin Berghouse of North Lake, Wis. “The words of our Holy Father made such an impact on my life that they are included in the mission statement for my media-production company, Lily Productions. I felt it was important to be vivid in my expression of the intentions of all of the works I am allowed to partake in here on earth.”

All the Heart’s a Palette

“The Holy Father has left an artistic patrimony as a poet, playwright, literary stylist and theorist of aesthetics,” says Dominican Father Peter John Cameron, an award-winning playwright and editor of the liturgical-prayer monthly Magnificat. “The fact that ‘the Pope acted and wrote poetry’ gave him immediate access to many people, especially youth, even before they knew anything else about him.”

“Catholic artists are looking to get together and talk about how to put the Pope’s vision into practice,” says Hamilton Reed Armstrong, a sculptor and art historian in Front Royal, Va. “I’ve been an artist for more than 40 years, and I don’t ever remember this kind of vitality among artists who are interested in exploring religious themes.”

Of course, like any artist true to his vision, John Paul had his detractors among cultural commentators. “The world is more complex than this Pope presents it,” said Anthony Judt, a professor of European Studies at New York University, in an interview with PBS for its 1999 “Frontline” special, “John Paul II: The Millennial Pope.”

“[The way he sees things], everything is connected, from modern pop music to genocide.” Judt criticized, for example, the connections John Paul II drew between contraception and euthanasia in his warnings of an encroaching “culture of death.” “There is no line to be drawn between the two,” said Judt, “so he would draw the line above [both] of them.”

To dismiss John Paul’s worldview as simplistic — read: “confining” to artists — is to betray one’s unfamiliarity with the Pope’s thought, counters Mark Gordon, former administrator of the St. Michael Institute of Sacred Art in Mystic, Conn. “John Paul’s theology of the body, for example — a stunning intellectual accomplishment all its own — has revolutionized the discussion of what it means to be human and to be alive,” he says. “It puts the sacramentality of the material order in a whole new light.

“This is another way he has enabled artists to have a genuine encounter with the modern world,” adds Gordon. “They can now use their gifts to communicate that the world only has pieces of the story of human existence. To complete the story, and put all those ‘disconnected’ pieces together in a coherent whole, you need to have a handle on the sacramental order of the physical universe, created by God. The Holy Father has given us that handle.”

In the concluding section of his Letter to Artists, Pope John Paul II wrote: “May the beauty which you pass on to generations still to come be such that it will stir them to wonder! Faced with the sacredness of life and of the human person, and before the marvels of the universe, wonder is the only appropriate attitude.”

Perhaps, then, it will be okay if artists pause to wonder for a while over Pope John Paul II — one of God’s great masterpieces — before getting on with the works he now prays in heaven for them to complete.

David Pearson is the

Register’s features editor.