Pope Paul VI is remembered for his views on contraception and celibacy, but there was more to him

Rite & Reason: He saw artists as prophets and poets, and helped to set up the Vatican’s contemporary art collection

Pope Paul VI in Sydney, Australia, to commemorate the bicentenary of Captain Cook’s discovery of the continent, during a papal visit in 1970. Photograph: Rolls Press/Popperfoto/Getty Images
Pope Paul VI in Sydney, Australia, to commemorate the bicentenary of Captain Cook’s discovery of the continent, during a papal visit in 1970. Photograph: Rolls Press/Popperfoto/Getty Images

A 50th anniversary took place recently which went widely unnoticed. On June 23rd, 1973 the Vatican Museums inaugurated their new Collection of Modern Religious Art. It was Giovanni Battista Montini (1897-1978), Pope Paul VI, who initiated this significant venture.

However, when one reads about this controversial pope and his legacy, his groundbreaking role in the Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art, as it is now called, which today comprises about 8,000 works, is rarely mentioned.

What most people do remember is his Humanae Vitae (1968) with its negative stance on artificial contraception and his reinforcement of priestly celibacy. In turn it does not surprise that many priests and sisters left religious life behind in the 1960s and ‘70s. Likewise Paul VI’s (and John Paul II’s) non-approval of the ordination of women is becoming ever more detrimental – a fact now widely acknowledged by both lay and ordained.

And yet, this pope was remarkably open, modern and forward-looking in other spheres. He has been referred to as the “good pope”, as a kindly, humble, sometimes hesitant and even tormented man. He was not the typical Vatican careerist.

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After John XXIII died, Montini was elected pope in 1963 and closed the Second Vatican Council in 1965. Paul VI saw himself as a servant of spreading the Gospel, like St Paul, whose name he chose, many centuries before him. He got rid of much of the traditional papal pomp, sold his tiara, and donated the proceeds to charity. He was the first pope to fly and visit all six continents. He set out to implement the council’s aims and decisions, even if, of course, it remains debatable to this day to what extent all the conciliar decisions were realised. For some the changes went too far; for many others they did not go far enough. Paul VI’s radical social teaching stands out in sharp contrast to his views on artificial contraception. Deeply committed to the issues of injustice, to workers and to the poor, he was accused in conservative circles of holding Marxist views. His commitment to ecumenism became central to his papacy. He met many religious leaders, including the Greek Orthodox patriarch Athenagoras in 1964.

In the face of the Vietnam War, he made an urgent plea for peace before the United Nations in New York in 1965 and addressed the world Council of Churches in 1969. According to Peter Hebblethwaite’s Paul VI: The First Modern Pope (1993), some considered Paul VI a liberal when he asked Catholics to love not only fellow Catholics but also Protestants, Muslims, atheists, the indifferent and so on.

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Dialogue with the whole of humanity in search of truth shaped his life and thought. Well-read and educated, Paul VI sought and enjoyed conversation with intellectuals, writers and artists. It is in this context of openness and of Vatican II that he addressed the art world in the Sistine Chapel in May 1964. He spoke of the distance between the church and contemporary art, so different from the close ties in the past. The pope’s hope was to once again bring the church and artists closer together. This meeting in 1964 led to the foundation of the Vatican’s modern art collection, consisting of artworks mostly donated by artists and collectors. Many leading artists are included. Since 2011 a whole room is dedicated to Matisse, made possible by a considerable gift by Pierre Matisse of works by his father relating to the genesis of the chapel in Vence in the south of France.

In his speech at the collection’s inauguration in 1973, Paul VI pointed out that even in our age where the ‘religious root’ seems to have lost so much of its inspirational virtue, art freely conceived by the artist and not commissioned for sacred spaces of worship can still convey religious dimensions in their own way. He acknowledged positively the independence of modern artists, their subjectivity and self-expression.

Paul VI warmly welcomed artists, describing them as prophets and poets, and he emphasised that the Catholic Church still was and always will be their “admirer, advocate and protector”. In “honouring the works exhibited here, she awaits on the very wide horizon of today’s world the blossoming of a new springtime of post-conciliar religious art”.

In post-Vatican II times, there are a range of inspired examples of modern church buildings and numerous works of art which still give expression to broadly religious facets as well as specifically Christian themes. Yet, it is true that church leaders, clergy and lay people of all Christian denominations could still do a great deal more to engage with contemporary artists, writers, musicians and film-makers. Paul VI’s legacy in this regard was prophetic and should inspire churches into the future.

Dr Gesa Thiessen is Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Religion, Theology, and Peace Studies, Trinity College Dublin, and non-stipendiary minister with the Lutheran Church in Ireland.