My conference talk on God’s role in artistic inspiration
By Thomas V. Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Sep 11, 2026
Earlier this year, on May 30, I was honored to give the keynote address at the first annual conference of the Thomistic Artists Guild in Los Angeles. It was a real blessing and a milestone for me, not only in a professional sense, but even more because for many years I had been wanting to write something about the role of God in artistic inspiration.
The video of my lecture, “The Creator Spirit and the Soul of Art,” was recently published:
Note that the video does not include the Q&A after the talk, but that is included in the audio-only version which I have published on the Catholic Culture Podcast:
Thomas V. Mirus is President of Trinity Communications and Editor-in-Chief for CatholicCulture.org, hosts both the Catholic Culture Podcast and Lives of the Popes, and co-hosts Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast. See full bio.
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Posted by: Thomas V. Mirus -
Sep. 14, 2026 10:02 AM ET USA
Hi Phil - yes, I think Rupnik's art should be removed. Even on aesthetic grounds, let alone spiritually, it doesn't deserve to be in so many of the world's holiest sites.
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Posted by: philtech2465 -
Sep. 14, 2026 9:46 AM ET USA
Thomas, I was a bit surprised that in the Q&A, no one brought up Fr. Rupnik and his mosaics, the inspiration of which allegedly involved horribly abusive and sinful acts. The explicitly sacred nature of his art would seem to be a separate matter from, say, Carvaggio's religious paintings. Do you believe Rupnik's art should be removed/covered up?
