This yr, each Monday throughout Lent the Dicastery for Selling Integral Human Improvement will publish a vignette drawn by Maupal—aka Mauro Pallotta— illustrating a passage from the Pope’s Lenten message. The artist is understood to Romans (and the world) for his portraits of Francis painted on the streets of the Everlasting Metropolis.
An artist’s eye
By commissioning the artist to contribute, the goal was to “break free from a classical presentation” and invite Christians to broaden their horizons, explains Muriel Fleury, head of communications for the dicastery.
An artist’s eye permits us to “see issues we wouldn’t essentially have seen,” she provides.
Lidia Magni | Lidia Magni
The primary poster, designed across the normal theme of the message — “By the desert God guides us to freedom” — depicts Francis carrying a cart laden with a bag labeled “religion,” tracing a path by way of a desert plagued by nails. These nails, Maupal defined at a press convention, symbolize “our previous and new idols, all our prisons.”
“Once we observe Pope Francis, who opens the way in which with the energy of religion, they disappear: The highway turns into satisfactory for all,” he added.
The appropriate pope on the proper time
This has been Maupal’s conviction for the reason that starting of Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s hold forth.
“As quickly as he was elected, I noticed an incredible resemblance in his face to my late grandfather. I started to observe him extra attentively. I appreciated his empathy, his protection of the weakest, and it resonated with my means of being,” he tells Aleteia.
![street-art-collage-by-Italian-artist-Maupal-showing-Pope-Francis-AFP](https://wp.en.aleteia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/street-art-collage-by-Italian-artist-Maupal-showing-Pope-Francis-AFP-000_DV1621149.jpg?w=1024)
Photograph by Tiziana FABI / AFP
So the road artist started depicting Francis within the streets, highlighting “issues he mentioned or sought to advertise.” Alongside the way in which, the person who defines himself as “not an exemplary Catholic” has grow to be nearer to the Church with the 266th Pope.
“Pope Francis appeals loads to people who find themselves very removed from the Church, and I believe he’s the suitable pope on the proper time,” he says.
![ITALY-POPE-ART-VATICAN-MAUPAL](https://wp.en.aleteia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/web_-_photo_of_the_day_-_friday_-_october_21_-_000_ha2v6_c2a9_tiziana_fabi_-_afp.jpg?w=1024)
AFP PHOTO / TIZIANA FABI
Making the message accessible
Along with his seven drawings, which will probably be “graphic summaries of the Pope’s message,” Maupal intends to supply “seven steps to make it simply readable, even to a four-year-old, in an comprehensible, easy type which nonetheless will not be ‘superficial or banal.’” By conveying Christian values by way of the language of artwork, he hopes to “break down boundaries and accompany folks.”
For this work, to which he has devoted a complete month, Maupal additionally drew on his expertise of working as an artist with prisoners.
“I met individuals who had been by way of hell […]. I’ve met individuals who have crossed the desert and, paradoxically, have reached interior freedom, the liberty that God offers,” he advised the press.
![WEB3-JACOB-RUDD-GUITAR-SNOW-CHURCH-PROVIDED.png](https://wp.en.aleteia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/WEB3-JACOB-RUDD-GUITAR-SNOW-CHURCH-PROVIDED.png?w=300&h=169&crop=1)
![Pope Francis wooden cross Mass liturgy](https://wp.en.aleteia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/Pope-Francis.jpg?w=300&h=169&crop=1)