Pope Francis meets with a delegation of Italian mayors on Feb. 5, 2022. / Vatican Media.
Rome, Italy, Feb 5, 2022 / 10:53 am (CNA).
Money is not enough to solve the problems of society, Pope Francis said during a Feb. 5 audience in Rome with a delegation of Italian mayors.
“Sometimes people are under the illusion that adequate funding is enough to solve problems,” the pope said. “It is not true— in reality, we also need a plan for civil coexistence and citizenship: we need to invest in beauty where there is most degradation, in education where social unease reigns…in training for legality where corruption prevails.”
Francis said the coronavirus pandemic has illustrated this truth.
“The pandemic has brought to light so many frailties, but also the generosity of volunteers, neighbors, health workers and administrators who have gone out of their way to alleviate the suffering and loneliness of the poor and elderly,” he said. “This network of supportive relationships is a treasure that must be preserved and strengthened.”
Pope Francis meets with a delegation of Italian mayors on Feb. 5, 2022. Vatican Media.
The pope encouraged the mayors to prioritize listening to their constituents and he likened their role to that of a parent.
“Do not be afraid to ‘waste time’ listening to people and their problems,” he said. “Good listening helps in discernment, to understand the priorities in which to intervene.”
“And along with listening, the courage of imagination must not be lacking,” the pope continued. “Knowing how to dream of a better city and sharing the dream with other local administrators, with those elected to the city council and with all citizens of good will is a marker of social care. And this is in part the task of the mayor or mayoress.”
He warned the mayors to avoid neglecting the poor in their cities, who he described as “the wealth of a city.”
“This might seem to some to be cynical: no, it isn’t, they – the poor – remind us of our frailty and that we need each other,” he said.
Pope Francis meets with a delegation of Italian mayors on Feb. 5, 2022. Vatican Media.
The men and women were members of the National Association of Italian Municipalities. They met with Pope Francis in the Vatican Apostolic Palace.
The pope characterized the audience as a moment of reflection for the mayors and thanked them for their leadership through the past two years of the coronavirus pandemic.
“You have been a point of reference in enforcing the regulations, at times burdensome but necessary for the health of citizens,” the pope said. “Your presence has been instrumental in encouraging people to keep looking forward.”
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Vatican City, Feb 12, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- In approaching the penitential practices of Lent, Catholics can learn a lot from persecuted Christian communities, an advocate for Aid to the Church in Need said at the Vatican on Friday.
A detail of Timothy P. Schmalz’s fourth station: Jesus meets his mother. / Courtesy of Timothy P. Schmalz
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 18, 2022 / 04:00 am (CNA).
Catholic artist Timothy P. Schmalz sought to find and bring to life the most important subject matter an artist could ever express.
“I wanted to create a sculpture project that would be the heart of Christianity,” the Canadian sculptor said.
He settled on Christ’s crucifixion and death.
His new creation, once finished, will be a life-size set of the 14 Stations of the Cross — scenes depicting Christ’s journey from being condemned to death to his burial — placed right next to Disney World. The faithful will be able to encounter the 12-foot tall, 11-feet wide sculptures at the Basilica of Our Lady Queen of the Universe, in Orlando, Florida.
“I hope to rival Universal Studios, Walt Disney, and every other feature in Orlando by creating what has never been done before, and that is one of the biggest, most complex Stations of the Cross,” Schmalz said.
Once completed, visitors will encounter the 12-foot tall, 11-feet wide sculptures at the Basilica of Our Lady Queen of the Universe, in Orlando, Florida. “It’s right in the center of a place that desperately needs a spiritual Catholic oasis,” sculptor Timothy P. Schmalz says. Courtesy of Timothy P. Schmalz
Schmalz is not new to sculpting. The experienced artist’s work can be found worldwide, from St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican to Washington, D.C. He is perhaps best known for his “Homeless Jesus” sculpture and the “Angels Unaware” statue.
His new Stations of the Cross, he hopes, will serve as a tool for evangelization and conversion for the roughly 50 million people that visit Disney each year.
“It’s right in the center of a place that desperately needs a spiritual Catholic oasis,” he said, adding that bringing the Stations of the Cross to Orlando is “bringing the Gospels [to] where the people are, in a sense.”
The stations — which combine mural painting and sculpture — will offer visitors “visual doorways into a Catholic-Christian experience,” he said.
So far, he has completed the first four stations: Jesus is condemned to death, Jesus carries his cross, Jesus falls for the first time, and Jesus meets his mother.
It will take another year, he says, before all 14 are done. On his YouTube channel, Schmalz walks viewers through the process of creating each station, from sketching them on paper to sculpting them in bronze.
Each scene, made of bronze, bursts with symbolism, movement, and emotion. The foreground shows Jesus’ passion. In the background, Schmalz plans to include every single parable found in the New Testament.
“When you see Jesus in the front, you’re going to see … a raw, hardcore scene from the passion,” he said. “But in the distance, you’re going to see the parables that he taught us. So it might be in the distance, you’ll see a camel trying to get through a little hole in the wall or the eye of the needle.”
While he works in his studio located in St. Jacobs, in Ontario, Canada, he listens to an audio recording of the New Testament, he said.
“Things are pulled out and things describe themselves as I create,” he explained, comparing his role to a “passenger” or “director.”
The stations are getting funded by various donors, he said, as he works on them. As they progress from one to 14, each station will become “more and more intense.”
“The passion now has become my passion,” he said.
He hopes that viewers will feel like they are a part of the stations.
“We know there’s a lot of kids going to Walt Disney in Orlando every year,” he said, giving one example. “I’m putting a lot of children within them so they can see themselves in the scene.”
The 53-year-old artist also sees himself in them.
“It’s fascinating because you really become a part of the subject matter as you’re working on it,” he said. “It evolves and it grows as you’re working on it, and it’s almost like it tells you what to do in a sense where I don’t necessarily know exactly how the piece will end up.”
He called the project mentally, spiritually, and physically taxing. He might dedicate one entire day to creating a little corner of one of the stations, he said, and another day just focusing on the face of Jesus.
But, he added, the work is worth it. These stations allow him, as an artist, to “get to the absolute essence of Christianity” in the hope that “it will be one of the greatest tools to convert and inspire Christianity.”
“I hope to rival Universal Studios, Walt Disney, and every other feature in Orlando by creating what has never been done before, and that is one of the biggest, most complex Stations of the Cross,” says Timothy P. Schmalz, shown here in his studio looking at the fourth station. Courtesy of Timothy P. Schmalz
“I want [people] to come back from Orlando and, sure, talk about the rides, talk about Mickey Mouse. But I want them to say that the most exciting and most interesting and most moving thing with their vacation was this Stations of the Cross project,” he said. “And if I can do that with this piece of artwork, I have succeeded.”
At a time when many people are attacking Christianity and Christian symbols, Schmalz’s response is to create new, stronger symbols. “Sculptures that are bold, sculptures that celebrate and glorify Christ, but also encourage people to walk through that doorway and see Christ in focus,” he said.
“As they try to make us invisible, we have to sharpen,” he concluded. “And me, as an artist, that is my job, to sharpen our identity with these symbols and art.”
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