On October 1, during a general audience at the Vatican, Leo XIV met with a group of Poles who presented him with a painting of Mary and Child by the prominent Krakow artist Beata Stankiewicz. The brief meeting with the Pope also provided an opportunity to inform him about the important and ambitious project “Let’s Repaint Catholicism,” which seeks to renew Western sacred painting and restore the Church’s patronage of contemporary art.

It all began in 2021, when two institutions—the Saint John Paul II Institute of Culture at the Pontifical Angelicum University in Rome and the St. Nicholas Foundation, based in Poland—launched a project called “Let’s Repaint Catholicism.” According to Bishop Jacek Grzybowski, auxiliary bishop of Warsaw-Prague and spiritual advisor to the project, its purpose is “to promote the encounter between art and religion, the Church and artists, and thus ensure the continuity of the Gospel message also through art.”

In the first year (2021), the organizers invited a group of renowned Polish painters to depict the figure of Merciful Jesus, known from the visions of Saint Faustina Kowalska. The 10 paintings of Merciful Jesus, the result of the artists’ initial work, were first exhibited in Poland and then, in the spring of 2023, in the halls of the Museums of San Salvatore in Lauro in Rome.

As explained by the project’s creator, Dariusz Karlowicz, president of the St. Nicholas Foundation, from the outset, it was envisioned that this first initiative would be only the beginning of other future activities. Indeed, in subsequent years, the organizers invited the artists to address other themes of the Christian faith, specifically the mysteries of the Rosary. Therefore, after dialogue with theologians, biblical scholars, art historians, and philosophers, the painters depicted the joyful mysteries: “The Annunciation” and, more recently, “The Visitation.” The paintings narrating Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth are already on display in the halls of the Museums of San Salvatore in Lauro. The exhibition is part of the program of events for the 2025 Jubilee Year and is sponsored by the Vatican Dicasteries for Evangelization and for Culture and Education. A special presentation ceremony will take place on October 9 at 6:30 p.m. The co-organizer of the exhibition currently underway in Rome is the John Paul II Vatican Foundation.

It was during the general audience on October 1 that the organizers, represented by Dariusz Karłowicz and Joanna Paciorek of the St. Nicholas Foundation, Bishop Pawel Ptasznik, president of the John Paul II Vatican Foundation, and Father Tomasz Podlewski, head of Media and Events for the same foundation, invited Leo XIV to visit. In response to the invitation, Leo XIV joked that he “knew where the exhibition was,” but that to visit it, he “would have to travel abroad.”

After the audience, Paciorek expressed his joy at “having received the blessing of Pope Leo XIV.” Furthermore, the meeting took place at the beginning of the month of the Rosary, and he added, “our project ‘Let’s Repaint Catholicism’ follows precisely the mysteries of the Rosary.”

For his part, Bishop Ptasznik explained the Foundation’s involvement in the initiative: “John Paul II placed great emphasis on the promotion of culture and dialogue between the Church and people of culture. This had recently weakened, but the exhibition in Rome we have prepared together is an attempt to renew this dialogue (…) The interest shown by Pope Leo XIV bodes well for the future.”

The exhibition will be open until October 25th; it can be visited Monday to Saturday, from 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and from 3:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., at Piazza San Salvatore in Lauro 15. Free admission.