Pope John Paul I and the MGM Lion
I just recently finished translating a little gem by John Paul I for Humilitas, and want to post an excerpt here. A little explanation first. As the newly-appointed bishop of Vittorio Veneto, Albino Luciani gave this homily in 1959 as he began the informative phase of the diocesan process of canonization for Fra Claudio Granzotto, O.F.M., a Franciscan lay brother and gifted sculptor born near Treviso, who died at age 46 in 1947.
Fra Claudio and his cause were of particular interest to Luciani as a lover of art, who had also taught sacred art and art history in the seminary in Belluno. His homily shows his interest in the problems and dangers of art and the spirituality of an artist. But he didn’t live to see the completion of the process. Fra Claudio was finally beatified by Pope John Paul II, poet, playwright and lover of the arts (who wrote a “Letter to Artists”), on November 20, 1994.
This homily by John Paul I is a delightful companion piece to his “Letter to Goethe” in Illustrissimi. I found the whole part about the MGM lion wonderfully funny, and very typical of Luciani. Here is a sample of what, if he had lived, John Paul I might have been put in his own “Letter to Artists.”
I willingly agreed that the process should be begun because I hope and trust that Fra Claudio has a message to deliver. . . Fra Claudio was an artist! And he has something to say to the art world.
And first of all, he can help artists understand that art is subject to the moral law. Not all artists are convinced of this. At the movies I have observed more than once the logo of Metro Goldwyn Meyer: a lion comes out roaring; then there appears the writing: Ars gratia artis [art for art’s sake], then a second lion stretching out its claws and opening its jaws wide in a new roar, as though to say: “Art for art’s sake! We artists are independent and we will defend this independence like lions!” And they really seem like lions! For them, art is superior to moral laws: an artist, while he is making a work of art, is obedient to no one; outside, while he is not making art, perhaps he will observe the commandments, but while he is making art, he is independent, he is in a parentheses, which is closed off, outside and above moral laws! Therefore you have this kind of claim of the artist of saying: “Once I am an artist I am a godlike being, someone superior. I will not submit myself.” And it is difficult to persuade them: If you present yourself to them as a bishop, a priest, anyone who offers exhortations, they roar at you: “You are not an artist! You don’t understand anything! Don’t meddle here!”
Let Fra Claudio come! Frau Claudio can present himself to these people and say: “I am an artist! I studied six years at the Academy in Venice, I graduated with the highest marks, I received congratulations from the greatest professors of that time, I loved art. I refused to become a Benedictine because they did not guarantee that I would be able to continue to be an artist. I have looked on and caressed my masterpieces, like creatures of my own, quivering with life; what you feel I have felt too. But I ever dreamed that because of this I had the right to set myself apart from the law of God. Art yes, is an elevated thing, but not above everything. I compared my masterpieces with other things, and I said (these are his own words), ‘to serve one Mass is worth more than all the sculptures in this world.’ And while I was chiseling away at my Wildtian works [Adolfo Wildt was an Italian sculptor], I asked the Lord to be chiseled in turn. And I said: “O Lord, make of me your masterpiece!”
What a voice this will be for artists! The lion will answer the lions.
Fra Claudio could bring a second, more specific warning to those who work in the field of sacred art. Sacred art today, in fact, finds few people who will understand it and treat it as they should: when they enter a church, these blessed artists find it difficult to enter with their heads bowed, and instead they think like this: “We are artists, therefore masters.” And they do not understand that in church they are guests, never masters. When they entered to work for the churches, Raphael and Michelangelo graciously asked the advice of theologians, they even beat their breasts, out of compunction. It seems that this was done in vain for certain artists, who are not yet persuaded that in order to make a work sacred, you must first feel it and study it as sacred! To the repeated admonitions of the ecclesiastical authorities, they continue to answer: “You are not an artist, you don’t understand!” Who knows what will happen with Frau Claudio? What if he presents himself to them as an artist and as a saint at the same time? As one who knows these things, who has very recently lived them?
Eight hours he sometimes spent in church praying, eight hours at a time! When they saw him kneeling, peasants and pious people, they left the church on tiptoe, saying, “We don’t want to disturb a prayer so filled with the Lord!”
Frau Claudio first remained in contemplation, he first heated his heart in the furnace of divine love, then, when he was well heated and had truly contemplated, only the did he set his hand to his masterpiece , and when his masterpiece was finished, he returned to contemplate and tried to bring what he had sculpted to life again.
It is a powerful teaching, and one that we should truly hope becomes a teaching for artists.
To read more of John Paul I’s writings in Humilitas, you can write to the Missionary Servants of John Paul I. You can find out more about them and their missionary work for the poor in Haiti, along with their address here.
