Exhibition: The Splendour of the Truth. The Beauty of Charity

Homage of the Artists to Benedict XVI for his 60 years as a priest

Oscar Niemeyer
The Cathedral of Christ the King

On 29 June 2011 the Holy Father Benedict XVI celebrated 60 years as a priest. To mark the occasion, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi followed up on an earlier meeting between the Pontif and artists in the Sistine Chapel on 21 November, and organised a Homage to the Pope by 60 Artists from the various disciplines: painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, literature and poetry, music, cinema and goldsmiths.

The Exhibition was inaugurated by the Holy Father on Monday 4 July in the Atrium of the Paul VI Hall (Audience Hall).

The event was extraordinary, not least in that it was a return by the artists responding to that "See you again!" pronounced by the Pontiff at the end of the meeting in the Sistine Chapel.

The occasion was of fundamental importance for the dialogue between the Church and the artists and also for the presence of some of the world's leading artists who have taken up the challenge of working in the field of spiritual fields, which are so dear to the Pope.