Pope Francis Daily

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis praised artists as true visionaries who can see, dream and invent as he welcomed 200 artists, filmmakers and writers into the Sistine Chapel to mark the 50th anniversary of the Vatican Museums’ contemporary art collection.

Francis acknowledged that some in the crowd — there was Andres Serrano, of “Piss Christ” fame — sometimes use confrontation to make people think. But he said their aim was to find harmony and beauty.

“You want to reveal reality also in its contradictions and in those things that it is more comfortable and convenient to keep hidden,” Francis said. “Like the biblical prophets, you confront things that at times are uncomfortable; you criticize today’s false myths and new idols, its empty talk, the ploys of consumerism, the schemes of power.”

Pope Paul VI first invited artists into the Sistine Chapel in 1964 in hopes of renewing the friendship between the Catholic Church and artists that, in past centuries, had resulted in such masterpieces as Michelangelo’s frescoed chapel itself.