When you come across cheesy religious art on greeting cards and in gift shops, it’s easy to take the whole genre for granted.
But this is a mistake, because true sacred art is something else entirely. Think of the Pieta or the Sistine Chapel — great religious art deeply affects us and inspires our faith.
Our world needs this kind of art — art that is powerful, stirring, deeply moving. But what can we do when art in the modern world seems so far from our Catholic faith?
One community in Houston found a brilliant, creative answer.
Why we need sacred art
“Society needs artists,” St. John Paul II wrote in his 1999 Letter to Artists.
You can’t miss his letter if you’re interested in art.
In it, St. John Paul II called for “a new alliance” between artists and the Church.
He pointed out that art and faith have much in common:
Even beyond its typically religious expressions, true art has a close affinity with the world of faith, so that, even in situations where culture and the Church are far apart, art remains a kind of bridge to religious experience.
Out of such an alliance, he expressed his hope for “a renewed ‘epiphany’ of beauty in our time.”
A call for artists
Walk into many modern churches and you can see, with a sinking heart, why a renewed epiphany of beauty is needed.
Human beings are deeply visual: Beautiful art draws us into contemplation and inspires worship. Yet so many modern churches are bare and devoid of beauty — a kind of iconoclasm that may be artistically fashionable but which the faithful in the pews, yearning to enjoy at Mass a foretaste of heaven, experience as a cruel blow.
It may not be easy in the current climate, but we can’t give up our birthright of genuinely beautiful sacred art without a fight.
Thankfully, some places are working hard to keep alive this heritage and promote it for the future. One of these is the Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham and its school and homeschool communities in Houston, Texas.
“When we think about handing down our patrimony to the next generation, we consider four pillars: sacred worship, sacred wisdom, sacred art, and sacred music,” Dr. Alexis Kutarna, head of school at Cathedral High School, told Aleteia.
The school is affiliated with the Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham, home to the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter.
(If you are not familiar with the Ordinariate, it provides a unique way for Anglicans to join in full communion with the Catholic Church while keeping elements of their worship traditions and spiritual heritage.)
Perhaps because of the Ordinariate’s unique cultural heritage, the Cathedral community — which also includes Holy House Academy, a homeschool enrichment program — makes it their mission to share appreciation for sacred art with the next generation.
This appreciation arises naturally out of living faith. Religious and artistic flourishing have always gone together, Kutarna explained:
If you think about great centers of development of civilization, such as cities with great cathedrals or the villages and cities that spring up around monasteries, you find not only a center of religious activity but also of intellectual life and artistic development. From these centers arise great architects, painters, musicians and composers. That’s what we are working to build here in our community in Houston.
Certainly the Church has a vast treasury of sacred art, but it’s not enough to rest on our laurels. The making of great religious art cannot be merely a thing of the past.
The next generation needs opportunities to create its own sacred art, experiencing anew the reverence and power of these works. Kutarna said:
Sacred art has the capacity to draw a human person into the creative work of God. This is why the Church must continually foster not only the preservation of art or patrons of the arts, but the creation of art. And so the Church must always foster the growth of young artists.
An action plan to grow new artists
How to encourage the next generation to take sacred art seriously — or even care about it in the first place?
In partnership with other Catholic organizations, the Cathedral has two signature events designed to promote this mission.
1Sacred Art LIVE!
The Scanlan Foundation and artists Kate Capato, Paul Latino, Al Sauls, and Bill Stidham began this annual sacred art showcase — “a celebration of living artists creating inspired, faith-building works of art.”
First hosted at the University of St. Thomas in Houston in 2022, the event now takes place annually at Cathedral High School. It will next take place on April 11, 2026.
This year, for the first time, the event will include two student artists — one from Holy House Academy and one from Cathedral High School. The featured artist is Clorinda Bell, who comes from a line of Peruvian sacred artists dating back to the 1500s. Also present will be Timothy Paul Schmaltz, a sculptor with works on display at the Vatican, and Amber Knorr, an American artist whose work is featured in a number of monasteries.
2Archdiocesan Art Contest
The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston offers this opportunity for children to display their sacred art creations alongside the professionals at Sacred Art LIVE! Finalists appear at the Sacred Art Live! Shows and the top 3 works in each grade are awarded tuition vouchers and medals during a ceremony.
“This contest is for all the Catholic elementary schools in the Houston area,” Kutarna said. “It promotes sacred art in their art programs and gives up-and-coming young artists who are really interested in making sacred art the chance to participate in a contest, earn scholarships and awards, and have some 800 people come see their work at the art show, which is a great honor.”
This year’s theme for the art contest is Our Lady Across The Americas, and it will be exciting to see the results of each child’s imagination.
Sacred art has the power to change our lives. As Pope Benedict XVI wrote:
Art is capable of making visible our need to go beyond what we see and it reveals our thirst for infinite beauty, for God.
Our whole Church benefits from initiatives like these in Houston, as they safeguard the treasure of sacred art for the generations to come.
