The pope will meet Denzel Washington, J Balvin, and other famous artists

The meeting starts on Wednesday, August 31, at the Vatican Museums, with a private visit and a moment to share some reflections in the Sistine Chapel, followed by dinner. On Thursday, September 1, the pope will sit at the table in the Academy of Sciences, in a private dialogue with the invited artists. The conclusions of this dialogue will be publicly shared.  

“This is not an exclusively Catholic event. We have invited artists from a variety of backgrounds,” Luis Quinelli told Aleteia. Quinelli leads the Vitae Global Foundation, which is supported, among other personalities, by Pope Francis himself and Queen Sofía of Spain.

The event aims “starting a conversation on how to overcome polarization and the conflicts that we are all suffering. Media, the entertainment industry, the arts – they all have a lot to do with it. They have a great influence on people’s minds, hearts, and souls. Art and spirituality go hand in hand […] So we came up with an idea: what if we bring some famous artists and world celebrities together with the pope, to think about how to develop high-impact projects that can positively transform culture?”

 “We have gradually lost the ability to sit at a table with totally different people, to give us the opportunity to get to know each other and understand our different realities,” Quinelli added. “Finding our commonalities, we come to realize that a shared world is possible. By developing those commonalities, we can then make a better world.”

Quinelli concluded: “These last few years have been hard. We faced a pandemic, and we are still dealing with its consequences. Circumstances have hit us hard, but we can perhaps change things by getting a conversation started. And that is what this event is about.”

[Update: Certain of those artists anticipated for the meeting were unable to attend in the end, including Denzel Washington. Read about how the meeting went, and the Pope's message, here.]