Press release
IX International Liturgical Conference
ARS LITURGICA
Art at the service of the Liturgy
Bose, 2-4 June 2011
Monastery of Bose
National Office for the Cultural Heritage of the Church — Italian Bishops’ Conference
PRESS RELEASE
Bose, 20 May 2011
From Thursday, 2 June, through Saturday, 4 June 2011, the IXth International Liturgical Conference will be held at the Monastery of Bose (Magnano BI). The Conference, promoted by the Monastery of Bose in collaboration with the National Office for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), will have as its theme: Ars liturgica. Art the service of the liturgy. The opening session will be presided jointly by Enzo BIANCHI, prior of Bose, and mons. Stefano RUSSO, director of the National Office for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church CEI.
Among the personalities that will be present at the Conference are Alceste CATELLA, bishop of Casale Monferrato and president of the Episcopal Commission for the Liturgy of CEI, Gabriele MANA, bishop of Biella, Arrigo MIGLIO, bishop of Ivrea, secretary of the Piedmont Bishops’ Conference.
Present will also be archimandrite Job GETCHA, official delegate of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, rev. doc. Jonathan GOODALL, personal secretary of the Archbishop of Canterbury and his official delegate, to attest to the ecumenical dimension of the Conference, at which Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, and Reformed scholars will take part.
Of particular significance is the presence of don Manlio SODI, S.D.B., president of the Pontifical Theological Academy and president of the Pontificium Institutum Altioris Latinitatis, don Franco MAGNANI, director of the National Liturgical Office of CEI, and father Norbert HENNIQUE, director of the Department of Sacred Art of the French Bishops’ Conference.
The many participants come from Italy and other countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland. The presence of monks from Italy and from abroad testifies to the faithful attention of the monastic world to liturgical themes.
Now in its ninth edition, the International Liturgical Conference of Bose is an annual appointment, at which scholars and experts from various countries and belonging to various Christian Churches discuss themes on the relation between liturgy, architecture, and art. They thus offer the general public present, made up of theologians, liturgists, architects, artists, persons responsible for the construction of churches, persons interested in the specific theme a place for common reflection that is animated by the desire to recognize fully the value of liturgical space and of Christian art.
The Scientific committee, entrusted with the preparation of the International Liturgical Conferences of Bose, is composed of Enzo Bianchi (Bose), Stefano Russo (Roma), Goffredo Boselli (Bose), Frédéric Debuyst (Louvain-la-Neuve), Paul De Clerck (Bruxelles), Albert Gerhards (Bonn), Angelo Lameri (Roma), Keith Pecklers (Roma), Giancarlo Santi (Milano).
Topics and speakers at the Conference
In his opening speech the prior of Bose, ENZO BIANCHI, will introduce the theme of the Conference, showing how art can “celebrate liturgically” with the entire assembly of the faithful and thus be at the service of the liturgy. Mons. STEFANO RUSSO, director of the National Office for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church, will present the commitment of CEI to promote a dialogue with artists. The first day of the proceedings will be entirely reserved to reflection on the relation between Christian liturgy and the sacred. The French exegete YVES-MARIE BLANCHARD, professor at the Catholic Institute of Paris, has been entrusted wit the task of responding to the question whether the “sacred” exists in the New Testament. The liturgist UWE MICHAEL LANG, member of the Congregation for Divine Cult and Sacramental Discipline and lecturer at the European University of Rome, and the theologian THOMAS STERNBERG of the University of Münster will compare their views on the topic: the liturgy and the language of the sacred. The German liturgist ALBERT GERHARDS of the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the Bonn University, will introduce and moderate the discussion.
The relation between art and liturgy in the Orthodox Church will be treated by the well-known liturgist, ROBERT TAFT, honorary professor at the Pontifical Oriental Institute. Professor GIULIANO GRESLERI of the University of Bologna will present the relevance of father Couturier’s thought on art for the liturgy. The entire afternoon session of the second day of proceedings will be devoted to the presentation of works of art that are at the service of the liturgy already or that are in the process of being realized in several European countries: Liturgical art in the Church of England (J. GOODALL); The doors of the angels of Igor Mitoraj (M. DI CAPUA); The Kolumba Museum of Cologne (G. SCHLIMBACH); The new Ambrosian Gospel Book (P. CERRI, F. TEDESCHI, N. VALLI).
Of particular interest are the talks of the final day. The well-known Orthodox philosopher and theologian CHRISTOS YANNARAS, honorary professor of the Panteion University in Athens, will give a lecture on art as manifestation of the liturgical experience. The art historian FRANÇOIS BOESPFLUG of the Marc Bloch University of Strasbourg is expected to continue his much-discussed reflections at last year’s conference regarding the question: what art today for the liturgy? The French liturgist PAUL DE CLERCK of the Catholic Institute of Paris will have the task of drawing up a concluding synthesis of the conference.
