– Art&Faith –

LOSING THE LANGUAGE OF ART SACRED THEOLOGY

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When the Church began to lose its influence on the arts in the 19th century, the artist was inevitably forced to devote himself to art forms more restricted nature ephemeral, appearing to ignore everything that for centuries had been an expression of the heritage of faith.

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For too many years we have had to suffer the vagaries and follies of many national and foreign nullity; for too many decades we have transformed the real art in an ephemeral fashion and empty of all meaning, everything just to run after certain fashions of overseas, only to appear to date, Modern Vanguard.

Quirino De Ieso [Benevento 1926 – Known 2006]

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Artistic events of the twentieth century inevitably contrite concept art often helping to infuse a sense of irreverent representation, because devoid of all credibility in those human and Christian values ​​that once decreed the success through the patronage of the Catholic Church and the sense of faith that animated the artists.

When the Church began to lose in the nineteenth century its influence on the arts, the artist was inevitably forced to devote himself to art forms more restricted nature ephemeral, appearing to ignore everything that for centuries had been an expression of the heritage of faith. The artistic style of the twentieth century, although profoundly revolutionary it is nevertheless holder of those cornerstones that have marked the history of art over the centuries, I resented. The rest l'art [1] He has always shown the same evolutionary process. The new one is soon old [2], innovation becomes tradition and the present becomes the past but the latter is also necessary that, which follows in time to a future perspective: mutated form, behind every story, as every aesthetic.

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To all of us it is obvious that our society, for several years already, It is evolving towards amorality, not least through the destruction of their own Christian roots, which they are also the heritage of art. What is desirable, therefore, to reverse the situation and halt the decline in human values, snatching the danger of superficiality that the artistic representation of the sacred is the most faithful interpreter? To answer this question, in which the painting becomes an expression of faith and art a manifestation of the transcendent metaphysical, It is by far interesting study, fruit of the contemplation of the work of contemporary painter posthumously Quirino De Ieso, in whose canvases he translates the mystery of the universal, and theological pictorial [3]. In the opinion of De Ieso, it is also evident that art has many faces, from the sacred to the profane, but it is true that the "concept of art" that has a purely spiritual derivation, Divina, It is one of the most devoted human manifestations of love of man towards his Creator. He interprets the Truth in appearance spiritual and sacred, but investigated within our soul, Why, as stated by the teacher: "The mystery of Art is the same Universe, in one and the other are the truth and love of Christians ". When the artist reaches the awareness of this Truth, only then his work can rise to the dignity of a work of art, creating the masterpiece.

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De Ieso claims that only an inner search is able to produce such a miracle. Such research is right in the world of Art, the music, poetry, painting, sculpture. So art as soul searching. Consider in this regard to the way Dante Alighieri translates into poetic rhyme and images, Canto XXXIII in Paradise, the mysteries of faith exhibited by St. Thomas Aquinas in his QUESTION; images that are later, Sandro Botticelli, It will depict through his famous drawings illustrative of the Divine Comedy [cf. WHO]. But it is also true that many important values ​​for our society have been emptied of their actual content, contaminated with ephemeral sizes, trampled by a progressive decline ethics. And if the art is reduced to blank canvases, singed, shredded, ply simply smeared with color, in polished stones only by rivers, in twisted metal and rusty, then Art is dead? Certainly not. Fortunately, with each fall always follows a rise; therefore, sooner or later, Art authentic, imbued with passionate feeling, morale, social, cult, that is not dead, will return in triumph and, once again will lead us on the path of beauty, Purity, of joy and love.

In the works of this artist is felt that survey spiritual he translates into real mystical representations, both abstract, both screened (Technical latter of its mere invention) fruit of his meditations and that lead to a real philosophical dissertation of the meaning of Art, uttering even a direct attack against the contemporary art.

In recent years the interest of the individual and the greed of economic targets they did forget to civilization to show its real objectives worthy of being called that. The confidence in unprejudiced, the solidarity of the group depends on the achievement of common targets, the ethical conduct free of any contamination selfish were replaced by pure superficiality of mere appearance, as a substitute to replace the reality and lead to the result of mass destruction, addivenendo so a polluted earth that it can not ensure the survival of its inhabitants and deny the hope of tomorrow for posterity. Says the teacher:

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"For too many years we have tried the new at all costs, as if that were the main purpose of art; and did not realize that the novelty, originality are not achievements that come from outside but from our inner, from our hearts and our minds; they are achievements that can be obtained only through a serious work, continuous, suffered, meditated. Just so you can get to win a personal language and effective, always fruit, as well as talented, Also of long years of hard work, during which the artist digs into his soul, compared with the outside world and with the problems of the society in which he lives ".

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To highlight such concepts one can not ignore the technical means that the iconographic representation are the most effective expression, such as painting or sculpture. In fact, according to the authoritative opinion of this great master of the contemporary age, the concept of art you should distinguish between two senses or perceptions: one generic or common, and a pure or spiritual.

To date, no author He has made a clear distinction between the two perceptions separately attributing to the necessary specific meanings, but he showed the art as the result of this combination, without reflecting in what there is really behind. It is recognized that all the authors agree in stating that "Art" means generically: human labor resulting from the study, from practice and ingenuity to achieve a certain effect; the complex of rules or precepts necessary to that: astuteness; fineness; ability to know how to adjust to get a purpose, and everything is so synonymous with the profession, craft, office running out in this definition. From these first interpretations can be seen that while for the first direction (generico) it's pretty obvious to all meaning, it is not so for the second (spiritual), or rather the latter does not seem to be as comprehensible to all, but only a few, to those who belong to that group of elected able to read and read in. "Art" understood in a pure and spiritual means:

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"Elevation of the soul to God, contemplation of the greatness and power of God clearly visible in the beautiful nature that surrounds us; Search of Divine beauty in its different aspects transfused in all creation; search for harmony of the perfection of God in his work; Search Order of "Truth" universal; point of contact between matter and spirit, link that connects people to the Father and the Heavenly Mother ".

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Art is born with the mystery of man's creation, created in the image and likeness of God [cf. Gen 1,26]. In man the Creator instills the natural creative spirit that gradually become expressive art in its various forms. Since then the art in its various manifestations has always been the most intimate companion of man for himself but also for his relationship with God, and it will certainly be up to’eskaton, when God will create new heavens and new earth.

The man was not content to seek the spiritual and contact with it only through the figurative expression that is the iconographic representation of his thought, He tried to get to it also with a more rapid: verbally, that is, with prayer as a tool and means of communion with God, and also art, in its various forms of expression of poetry and music. Of course, prayer of early man was not still one conceived by us, because their way of seeing and thinking of ancient men was very different from our, but why should we think that their prayer and their concept of the supernatural were felt with warmth and sincerity of minors as we hear them today, because the spirit and desire of elevation and mystical momentum towards a metaphysical dimension that dwells in the human soul is always alive, but it certainly changed the way we express it through the ages, sometimes risking getting lost along the way.

It is known to most, the long way that art has come with his parables ascending and descending. For each period of greatest glory it is always followed a period of decline. One wonders: because there were these ups and downs in the arts? It should not be think of a more or less low intelligence of man as is often the most critical of all the times we wanted to prove with their more or less profound observations. The real reason that according to De IESO has always caused ups and downs is of an entirely different nature, It is introspective. It is recognized that in all ages, artists have always sought a means or a very effective way to abstract the reality of things and of nature, to make it clear to the audience the content of their works, or better to put in quick contact with the spirit of contemplative mood content in their works [4].

Only when artists could find this an effective means of abstraction, art was heading for the road that would lead her to the highest peaks, namely the most sublime artistic achievements. Only the inner dialogue through a clear insight of the artist himself raising his spirit to God, this could happen. When this way of abstracting was exploited to the maximum, later artists not to repeat the same route as their predecessors were forced to change their way. To do this, They had to find a new way of "abstract" and that at the same time was as effective as the one already universally accepted. Unfortunately, looking outside of their being, the artists are able to capture what the sad reality of these last remnants of technological progress offers them, remaining poor and paralyzed in the representation, that is not triggered by the spirit of man which is spokesman, ie the awareness of the existence of the divine, but rather the empty externality that first of all is often vile without substance.

Art is first of all life experience and as such it is developed together with the emotions, the social path, cultural and above all spiritual man-artist accomplishes in his life. It is undoubtedly a social phenomenon and expression of life itself, changes with the changing of society and human experiences. But in this continuous "becoming" art has to maintain the essential spirit of the essence, through the series of existential questions that the individual stands, and that is not the sign language that changes depending on the various eras, at least it is not just that, but rather it is a universal language, catechetical. There are numerous paintings - especially the frescoes engraved in many churches between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries - that are real picture boards of the Catechism for the People of God; basti citation, among numerous, those of the Cathedral of San Gimignano [see WHO].

The "Truth" pure universe, in its dual aspect, material and spiritual, but also catechetical, It is expressed through art, handmaiden of universal communication and for centuries placed at the service of the divine, of the sacred, through a difficult process to achieve a catharsis of interiority by vice, by moral disorder to get to the recovery of ethical values, set goals and lost because of externals with which today's artists will approach it without looking inside, according to the Gospel warning: "The kingdom of God is within you" [cf. LC 17,21]. This inner harbors the seeds of grace of Truth, then the spirit essence of true art, one capable of perceiving the Divine and manifest it through their posts expressive arts.

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Particularly close to Pauline theology, Quirino De Ieso used to say that without the victory of man over himself (due to non-introspective analysis) It will defeat Universal, with the unhappy prospect of becoming man "dinosaur" of two thousand, ie species doomed to extinction. But man, the only speck of the universe thinking, which roads can go to find himself? Only the personal soul searching can spring the new force able to put it back at the top of the ladder of living things. Who prevails? The beast or l'angelo, complacency or regret, the reality or the fantasy, the dόxa or the logos, faith or science, reality or illusion, victory or defeat? Where we place our self: in a whirlwind endless, or in a serene romantic glimpse of our land? Who dominates our thinking: nightmares born of ancient torments, or hopes for happy horizons? And that's how the interweaving of a network interwoven with arduous undertaking SWT man peering anxiously awaiting the response to the search and discovery of Truth.

Whether we find ourselves prosecutors of primordial instincts, whether we evaluate children of a heavenly creature sank in a world dominated by questionable passions after the expulsion of man from Paradise [cf. Gen 3, 23-24], We discover, however, that the soul searching that gives life to the world of art takes us on a fascinating adventure in the nature that surrounds us, and of which we are an integral part of how the wind, the rivers, the stars, the sun, wonderful works of God, despite the refusal of man corrupt in its primordial essence of original sin and often abandoned to the narrowness of his passions prevaricating, He has never ceased to come to us and love us throughout the history of our human experience, until the incarnation of the Word of God made man [cf. GV. 1,1].

The double question that De Ieso sets and enforces through his works to his interlocutors about man and nature which work of Creation, It is therefore not a cold philosophical interrogation, But the nagging question alive and to those who want to point out the great problems of today, and collaborate in remedies for the salvation of humanity and its natural environment, using the most refined expression of human production that is the art, witness material and immaterial having historical value of civilization as identity card of a people, proceeding to the recovery of breath that identity lost and perhaps lost forever, after the man came from the ancient Garden of Eden, to which he was again brought back from the Christ the Redeemer, who became the new Adam, because "as in Adam all die, so all will receive life in Christ " [cf. The Cor 15,22].

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* historian

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To read the review taken from the magazine The Sicilies click below

Licia Oddo – Jorge A Facio Lynx: "Quirino DE IESO THROUGH Arte E Koine"

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NOTE

[1] C. Vicari, As the 800 was the introduction to contemporary art, in Italian art in the second half of the twentieth century.: Tradition and Vanguard, Piacenza, 1980, p.5
[2] Ossani Silipo, General Character of Art between the new and the old, in Italian art in the second half of the twentieth century.: Tradition and Vanguard, Piacenza, 1980, p. 21
[3] Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo, The Sicilies, pag. 96 [cf. WHO]
[4] This interpretation is the understanding of the art of Panofsky,It corresponds to a third and final phase which provides the intrinsic meaning of the work itself: analysis iconologic. Captures beyond reason and beyond the stories symbolic values, evaluating political tendencies, religious, philosophical and social personality of the artist who is in the age in which he lives.

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GENTLE BUT groomed MASTER OF THE HOLY FATHER TO THE GERMAN BISHOPS 'CONFERENCE

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The Holy Father has some wonderful surprises, It would be enough to just listen or read what often says, in this climate often schizophrenic in which many journalists and blogger increasingly beyond the common sense Catholic, They have decided to focus as snipers on every sigh of the Successor of Peter. And this hurts primarily to them and to their souls, then the Church built by Christ on the rock of Peter.

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The 28 October I wrote an article in which I commented on it standard new episcopal appointments, manifesting in it concern. More that the provocative title was dramatic: «Are buggerando the Holy Father: We protect Peter! The worst ocelots quick-change artists are coming in pauperistica glory to the episcopate» [see WHO]. Previously I had written another the 30 July entitled: «Bishops, fashions and advice for new careerists: be poor, sloppy and peripheral existential» [see WHO]. Even before the 18 May another titled: «Christ doesn't take ruffians and courtiers, in fact there calls “servos” ma “Amici“» [see WHO].

Lamenting that in Italy They were electing dioceses, so often uncritically through choices are not always happy, Bishops from “existential suburbs” true or presumed, At the end of the long article 28 October lifted a specific question:

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[…] Is finally wonder If the Church's children are Italian, as such, children of a Lesser God. For example, compared to the Germans. Come May, in Germany, contrary to what is happening in Italy, It is not enforced and multiplied certain types corresponding to those bishops' pastoral criteria "amiably" imposed "by the Holy Father Francis? And if we talk of spirit or even more princely feudal spirit, despite all their romanofobo progressivism applicable, we all know what the Germans by far exceed in what Italians; not discussed even in the discourse of shameless wealth of the German Church, or tax revenue that benefits, by comparison with which the Eight Thousand Italian is little more than a mite.

Perhaps the Germans They are regarded by the psychology of man Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio of the children of a greater god, because no one is even crossed my mind to impose a diocese in Germany a pastor from the "suburbs existential" who has spent his ministry, for real or fake, to serve meals to immigrants, or to do pastoral work of evangelization among prostitutes in Hamburg. And indeed, German bishops still they continue to have business cards that open into four sections to contain within them all the academic specialist, doctorates, the long line of master postdoctoral, their scientific publications and so on […] [full article WHO]

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Precisely because of what I wrote in this article I must point out with great pleasure that the Holy Father Francis, with an iron fist covered with a velvet glove, today addressed decisively and with nothing to spare members of the German Bishops' Conference visit at the threshold of the apostles.

This is to reiterate that the Holy Father has some wonderful surprises, enough to hear or read what often says, in this climate often schizophrenic where many journalists and blogger increasingly beyond common sense of every Catholic, They have decided to focus as snipers on every sigh of the Successor of Peter. And this hurts primarily to them and to their souls, then the Church built by Christ on the rock of Peter [cf. Mt 16, 13-20].

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Click below to open the text of the speech

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SPEECH OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
To Their Excellencies THE BISHOPS OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY
VISITING “Ad limina“

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DOCUMENTS ARCHIVE

(attached to the biography of Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo)

certificates of the sacred ordination of Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo and mandate to exercise the sacred ministry

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Vicariate of Rome, 4 May 2010 – Certificate of priestly ordination of Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo, signed by the then Vicegerent Archbishop H.E. Mons. Luigi Moretti

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2 May 2010, document known as celebret with which the Diocesan Bishop confers on the presbyter the faculties he deems appropriate and which at the time was written in three languages ​​having already agreed with the Bishop to travel and stay in various European countries for pastoral and study reasons

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2 May 2010 – conferring the ministry of exorcist

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- Letters from readers of 'Patmos Island —

DONKEY IN CHAIR AND ACCUSATIONS OF HERESY: A BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF OUR CENSORS

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More Bishops of various dioceses, in camera of love they told me to have a hard time giving mandate to religious educators, giving reasons for their difficulties with phrases like this: "We have such a sample from not knowing where to fish, in a sea where the fish are often worse than the one '.

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father ariel.

I do not go into the merits of what she and Father Giovanni Cavalcoli have written wrong in recent times about marriage at the close of the synod on the family. I'll just take his latest article from whose rows [Ed. WHO] she denies that the Sacrament of Marriage administered by a priest to marry imprints in them (the spouses) a new permanent and eternal priestly character, and therefore indissoluble, it's this one, if I may say so, Heresy is beautiful and good. I wonder how she is left free to sow such thoughts, I tell him with fraternal correction spirit, as secular and modest as a religion teacher in schools in part to 7 year old, and as a parish catechist from 15 year old. You are a priest, and this can have particular credit, inducing others to err more than the simple.

Letter Signed

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Dear Reader.

For years I pray that the state is there to the rescue by abolishing the teaching of Catholic religion in schools of the Italian Republic. Let me be clear: I do not tell her in my reply, and in this particular context, because it is an idea that I keep repeating time and that I expressed no fear at even bishops, including a pair of prominent members of the Italian Episcopal Conference.

It is not a question of generalizing nor do all with the same brush, because I unfortunately touched the distressing level hand that winds among the teachers of this subject; and this does not in particular localities and regions of our country, but throughout our national territory; without prejudice teachers that are properly prepared, however, few and unfortunately always less.

More Bishops of various dioceses, in camera of love they told me to have a hard time giving mandate to religious educators, giving reasons for their difficulties with phrases like this: "We have such a sample from not knowing where to fish, in a sea where the fish are often worse than the one '.

After this introduction I reply to his statement, which starts with an accusation of "heresy" and ends with a "fraternal correction".

I dont know where he studied theology and especially such as have studied, because she demonstrates dramatically to ignore the basic fundamentals of the Discipline of the Sacraments, without touching even the complex and articulated sectors of the dogmatic sacramentaria.

The Christian marriage is a supernatural for the setting up of an only priesthood home through two baptized, a man and a woman, that through baptism - which gives a character - received the royal priesthood of Christ, also called the common priesthood of the baptized.

The marriage union is not a "new priesthood”, because the sacrament of marriage does not leave a character, least of all permanent and eternal, It is the union of two priesthoods in one that lasts only as long is the union, ie for how long the life of the spouses, therefore does not require a perpetual inseparability.

You are confusing the discipline of the sacrament of marriage with that of the Holy Order that imprints instead an indelible and eternal character, because those who have been made partakers of the Ministerial Priesthood of Christ, these remain forever, having acquired mystery of grace for a dignity that makes the upper Priests to them God's Angels, Angels who step aside before the Priests.

Very Serious is then his claim concerning the marriage sacrament administered by the priest to marry, because this sacrament is administered by Priest. In the Catholic Church the ministers of the sacrament, the spouses, so if it is they who administer it. If you belong to the Christian Orthodox Church, in this case the minister of marriage is the Bishop, which he gives authority to his priests to administer this sacrament.

What the Catholic Church are the celebrants of marriage the bride and groom It is considered by the Christian Orthodox Church thing "derived from medieval theological legalism which came to consider marriage with legal categories of the contract '. Indeed, according to the Orthodox sacramentalisti: "From this was born the logical conclusion to consider how the central figures “Contracting”, while the authority that presides - Bishop, Priest or Deacon - limited only to ratify the Church's blessing ". This is the reason why in the Orthodox Church, the Deacons, They can not officiate at the wedding, not having power priestly. Beyond the legitimate opinions of the Orthodox brothers we must recognize that, in order to avoid “confusion”, in the Catholic Churches of the Eastern rite it is prohibited to our deacons to celebrate marriage rites, What are granted to those of the Latin rite, as simple “assistants” of the couple-celebrants.

If you think that my thoughts conform to the doctrine and discipline of the Sacraments are heretical, in this case ask without delay to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith and the Bishop having canonical jurisdiction over me, while i, for what it is about what the grave she stated in her capacity as a religion teacher in role 7 year old, not at all I will turn to his Diocesan Ordinary, knowing how time lost contact to the bishops in matters before them, despite their objective gravity, the prompt response and they often date is as follows: "And what can I do?».

The Lord bless you.