Meeting with a delegation of the “Custodians of Beauty” project sponsored by the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), Pope Francis urges them to restore true beauty and harmony to the world, prioritizing those who live on the margins of society.
By Lisa Zengarini
Pope Francis has warned against today’s prevailing idea of beauty “more connected to hedonistic, commercial, and advertising criteria than to the integral development of people.” This distorted idea “leads to the degradation of humanity and nature”, he said.
The Pope was addressing a delegation of participants in the “Custodians of Beauty” (“Custodi del Bello”) Project, a joint venture of non-profit and for-profit companies and public entities spearheaded by the Italian Bishops, aimed at promoting a new model of social integration that focuses on work and beauty, as a driving force for economic development.
Welcoming the delegation in the Clementine Hall, on Monday morning, Pope Francis thanked the network for its work, noting that the name of the project is not just a slogan but a choice of life aimed at two great purposes: care and beauty.
“Being ‘Custodians of Beauty’ is a great responsibility, as well as an important message for the ecclesial community and for all of society.”
Caring is a community effort to protect the dignity of all
Caring, he said, involves protecting, preserving, and defending, and it requires constant attention and personal commitment as opposed to the current tendencies in our society to avoid engagement.
It is a community effort in which each person, with their abilities and skills, with their intelligence and heart, can do something for others, for our common home, from a perspective of integral care of creation.
True care, Pope Francis remarked, must extend beyond the environment to an ecological vision that includes the protection and dignity of all people, especially those who live in the margins and are discarded by society: the poor, migrants, the elderly and disabled who are alone, the chronically ill, because each one of them “is precious in the eyes of the Lord.”
“Today, there are so many people on the margins, discarded, forgotten in an increasingly efficient and ruthless society: the poor, migrants, the elderly and disabled who are alone, the chronically ill. Yet, each one is precious in the eyes of the Lord”
Restoring true beauty in neglected areas
Pope Francis therefore encouraged the project participants in their endeavour of revitalizing many places left to neglect and decay, to prioritize the people who live there and frequent them . “Only in this way – he said – will you restore creation to its beauty.”
Trending models of beauty lead to degrading humanity and nature
In this regard, Pope Francis criticized modern society’s superficial understanding of beauty, which is often reduced to ephemeral and commercialized aesthetics degrading both humanity and nature. Instead, true beauty is something sacred, unique, reflecting God’s creation, that combines grace and goodness, uniting aesthetic and moral perfection.
Concluding, he therefore encouraged the project participants to embrace their role as co-creators with God in restoring beauty and harmony to the world, citing Saint Joseph of Nazareth, “the humble and silent” guardian of Jesus, as a model in their commitment: “With his discreet and diligent faithfulness, Saint Joseph contributed to restoring beauty to the world,” he said.
