Venice has always been a place of contrasts, breathtaking beauty and devastating fragility, where history, religion, art and nature have combined over the centuries to create an ethereal gem of a city. But also for a place that prides itself on its culture of unusual encounters, Pope Francis’ Sunday’s visit was special.
Francis traveled to the lagoon city to visit the Holy See’s pavilion at the Biennale contemporary art show and meet the people who created it. But because the Vatican decided to hold its exhibition in a women’s prison in Venice, and invite prisoners to collaborate with the artists, the whole project took on a far more complex meaning, one that uplifted and united and reflected the power of art. I was touched by Francis’s faith. The need to provide hope and solidarity to the most marginalized people of society.
Francis hammered home both messages during his visit, which began in the courtyard of Giudecca prison where he met female prisoners one by one. As some of them began to cry, Francis urged them to use their time in prison as an opportunity for “moral and physical rebirth.”
Francis said, “Paradoxically, being in prison can symbolize the beginning of something new through the rediscovery of unexpected beauty in ourselves and others, as does the artistic event you’re hosting and the project you’re active in.” It is a symbol of what we contribute in a positive way.”
Francis then met with the biennale’s artists in the prison chapel, which was decorated with an installation of objects hanging from the ceiling by Brazilian visual artist Sonia Gomes, intended to draw the viewer’s gaze upward. He urged artists to adopt the Biennale’s theme of “Strangers Everywhere” this year to show solidarity with all marginalized people.
vatican exhibition The Giudecca Prison, a former convent for reformed prostitutes, has been transformed into one of the attractions of this year’s biennale, even though visitors will have to make reservations in advance and go through a security check to see it. It has become an unusual art world darling that welcomes visitors at the entrance with Maurizio Cattelan’s wall fresco of two giant dirty feet, a work that is reminiscent of Caravaggio’s dirty feet or the feet that Francis would touch every year. Washes in the Holy Thursday ritual which he performs regularly. Prisoner.
Pope Francis delivers his message as he meets youth in front of the Church of the Salute in Venice, Italy on April 28, 2024. The pontiff arrived for his first visit to the lagoon city, which also included the Vatican pavilion. 60th Biennale of Art. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
The exhibition also includes a short film starring prisoners and Zoe Saldana and prints in the prison coffee shop by one-time Catholic nun and American social activist Coretta Kent.
Francis’s whirlwind morning trip, which ended with Mass in St. Mark’s Square, represented a rare outing for the 87-year-old pontiff, who has struggled with health and mobility problems that have prevented any foreign trip so far this year. Has been rejected. ,
And Venice, with its 121 islands and 436 bridges, is not an easy place to negotiate. But Francis pulled it off, arriving by helicopter from Rome, crossing the Giudecca Canal in a water taxi and then arriving at St. Mark’s Square in a mini Popemobile, crossing the Grand Canal via a pontoon bridge built for the occasion. Went.
During a meeting with young people at the iconic Santa Maria Della Salute Basilica, Francis acknowledged the miracle of Venice, praising its “fascinating beauty” and tradition as a place of East-West encounter, but warning that it Becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change. And population decline.
“Venice is one with the water on which it stands,” Francis said. “Without the care and protection of this natural environment, it may even cease to exist.”
Venice, sinking beneath rising sea levels and burdened by the effects of overtourism, is in the early days of an experiment by Francis to limit day trips made on Sundays.
Venice authorities last week launched a pilot program to charge commuters 5 euros ($5.35) per day on peak travel days. The aim is to encourage them to stay longer or visit at off-peak times, reducing congestion and making the city more livable for the declining number of residents.
For Venice’s Catholic patriarch, Archbishop Francesco Moraglia, the new tax program is a worthwhile experiment, a potentially necessary evil to try to preserve Venice as a livable city for visitors and residents.
Moraglia said Francis’ visit – the Biennale’s first by a Pope – was a welcome boost, especially for the women of the Giudecca prison who participated in the exhibit as tour guides and protagonists in some of the artworks.
He acknowledged that despite its central importance to Christianity, Venice has had a long, complicated, love-hate relationship with the papacy for centuries.
The remains of St. Mark – St. Peter’s top colleague, the first Pope – are housed here in the basilica, one of the most important and magnificent in all of Christendom. Many Popes have come from Venice – in the last century alone three Popes were elected after being Patriarch of Venice. And Venice hosted the last conclave held outside the Vatican: the 1799–1800 vote elected Pope Paul VII.
But for centuries before that, relations between the independent Republic of Venice and the Papal States were anything but cordial as the two sides dueled over control of the Church. The Pope in Rome issued an injunction against Venice, essentially excommunicating the entire region. Venice regained its strength by expelling entire religious orders, including Francis’s own Jesuits.
“It is a history of contradictions because they were two competitors for many centuries,” said church historian and retired editor Giovanni Maria Vian. Vatican Newspaper L’Osservatore Romano whose family is from Venice. “The papacy wanted to control everything, and Venice jealously guarded its independence.”
Moraglia said the troubled history goes back much further and Venice is welcoming Francis with open arms and gratitude, mindful of its history as a bridge between cultures.
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“The history of Venice, the DNA of Venice – beyond the language that unites beauty and culture – it is the historical character that says Venice has always been a place of encounter,” he said.
Francis said as he closed the Mass at St. Mark’s before about 10,500 people.
“Venice, which has always been a place of encounter and cultural exchange, is called a symbol of beauty available to all,” Francis said. “Starting with the least, a symbol of brotherhood and care for our common home.”
