Pius XII, Address to the First International Congress of Catholic Artists (September 3, 1950)

 [3] You have undertaken a thing both timely and useful, dearly beloved sons, in promoting and organizing among yourselves the First International Congress of Catholic Artists, the distinguished representatives of which we are happy to greet on this occasion.

So much has already been said about art — that inexhaustible subject! Your present undertaken moves us to outline — very briefly — art's part in the task of Peace [sic]. Pax Romana!

The tremors of a world shaken to its foundation, misunderstandings between the minds of men, opposing interests, and shadows cast by hypersensitive individualism — all these, despite the new abundance of contacts and assimilation in material matters, have sharpened the sense of separateness, broadened and deepened the moral distances. The very excess of this evil has bit by bit made clearer the need for uniting in common action all the scattered strength of the nations and peoples anxious for peace. 

Neither to-day nor yet yesterday have first seen tenacious and skilful [sic] efforts everywhere aimed at bringing about joint action or cooperation with other lands. Contemporary events have stressed, not the futility and uselessness, but rather the inadequacy and shallow-rootedness of such efforts. Hence, with laudable eagerness, and faced with difficulties of every kind, men have set about establishing international associations on the political, juridical, economic, and social levels. it was promptly realized that there was still need for something more intimate, more human, and associations — at least partial associations — have begun to take shape in the technical, scientific, and cultural realms.

On this intellectual level, the Congress of Catholic Artists, now holding its first general meeting, ranks among the most estimable activities. This is self-evident, given first of all that art is, in certain respects, the most living, the most all-inclusive expression of human thought and feeling, and, moreover, the most broadly understandable, because art, speaking directly to the senses, knows not the diversity of tongues, but only the highly stimulating diversity of temperaments and mentalities. What is more, thanks to its subtlety and refinement, art — whether heard or seen — reaches depths in the mind and heart of him who beholds or listens, which words, either spoken or written, with their insufficiently shaded analytical precision, cannot attain.

For these two reasons, art helps men — regardless of all differences in character, education, or civilization — to know themselves, to understand themselves, at least mutually to comprehend each other and, consequently, to make common store of their respective resources with a view to rounding themselves out, one complementing the other. 

A first condition is required for art to be able to produce so desirable a result: namely, its expressive value, lacking [4] which it ceases to be a true art. To say as much is not superfluous in our day when all too often, among certain groups, the work of art is not sufficient in itself to render the thought, to externalize the feelings, to lay bare the soul of its author. Yet the moment it needs to be explained in verbal terms, it loses its value as a sign and serves only to afford the senses a physical joy rising no higher than their own level, or else it affords the mind merely the pleasure of subtle and useless play. Another condition exists if art is to accomplish fruitfully and worthily its glorious mission of understanding, of concord, and of peace; this is that through art the senses, far from burdening the soul and anchoring it to earth, should indeed supply the soul with wings, with which it may lift itself above passing trifles and meannesses toward the eternal, toward the true, toward the beautiful, toward the only true good, toward the only centre [sic] where union takes place, where unity is achieved, toward God. Is it not here that we may literally apply the resplendent utterance of the Apostle? "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen — His everlasting power also and Divinity — being understood through the things that are made." (Rom. i. 20.)

Hence all the schools of thought which cause art to forfeit its sublime role profane it and make it sterile. "Art for art's sake": as though it could serve itself as it sown end, sentenced to bestir itself, to drag itself about close to sensible and material things; as though through art man's senses do not obey a vocation higher than that of the simple apprehension of material nature, the vocation to awaken in the mind and soul of man, thanks to the transparency of that nature, the desire for "things that the eye has not seen or ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man." (I Cor. ii. 9.)

We shall say nothing here about an immoral art, which professedly lowers and enslaves the soul's spiritual powers to the passions of the flesh. After all, the words "art" and "immoral" are in flagrant contradiction, and your programme [sic] nowhere suggests their union. Congratulations, then, Gentlemen, for having understood the task incumbent upon you and for having desired, in the face of a "culture without hope" to regard art as "the source of a new hope." Make then to smile upon the earth, upon mankind, the reflection of the divine beauty and the divine light, and you shall, as you help man to love all things which are true, pure, just, holy, and worthy of love, have greatly contributed to the task of peace, and the "God of peace will be with you." (Cf. Phil. iv. 8-9.) May the immaculate Virgin, mirror of God's justice and splendor, Queen of peace, and whom we may well call the Queen of the arts, inspire and help you, may she cause to descend upon you, whose .lovingly contemplated ideal she is, her Son's graces, in pledge of which we give you — you and the whole body of Catholic artists and all those who are dear to you — our apostolic benediction.

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Source: Pius XII, "The Sovereign Pontiff's Address to the First International Congress of Catholic Artists" (September 3, 1950), address, Liturgical Arts 19, no. 1 (1950): 3-4.