Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides Service) - This year's annual plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Culture, due to be held on March 27 and 28, will be dedicated to the "Via pulchritudinis," in other words, to beauty as a way to evangelisation and dialogue. Alongside the traditional proofs for the existence of God - the five 'ways' - 'pulchrum' has also recently affirmed itself as a path to reach God, supreme beauty, and to transmit something of God's life to mankind, both through the wonder of nature and through artistic creation. In a time distrustful of powerful truths, one that doubts the existence of universal goodness, beauty can be seen as a meeting place between people of different cultures, as the first stage on a journey that leads to the rediscovery of 'verum' and 'bonum'."
The plenary assembly, which will be attended by cardinals, bishops, priests and lay people from the five continents, will consider three broad questions: the beauty of nature, the beauty of art, and the beauty of Christian sanctity.
Starting from the basis of theological aesthetics, and in the wake of the great thinkers of the 20th century, attention will also be given to "the great challenges of the Church at the beginning of this century, the threats of a new secularism and religious indifference; the mirage of beauty in sects and in new religious movements; the contemplation of creation and new debates concerning evolution and the protection of nature; the use of Christian artistic heritage with a view to the new evangelization; the beauty of the liturgy and, ultimately, sanctity.". (AP) (23/3/2006 Agenzia Fides; Righe:26; Parole:315)
