Pope Francis invites artists to the Sistine Chapel as the Vatican seeks a new cultural dialogue

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has praised artists as true visionaries who can see, dream and invent. He made the comments Friday as he welcomed 200 artists, filmmakers and writers into the Sistine Chapel to mark the 50th anniversary of the Vatican Museums’ contemporary art collection. Francis acknowledged that some in the crowd sometimes use confrontation to make people think. But he said their aim was to find harmony and beauty. The audience followed similar ones held by previous popes starting with Pope Paul VI who first invited artists into the Sistine Chapel in 1964 in hopes of renewing the friendship between the Church and artists.