Vatican cardinal lauds David Bowie's 'secret and implicit spirituality'
January 15, 2016
The music of the late David Bowie bore testimony to the rock star's "secret and implicit spirituality," Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi writes in an appreciation published in the Tablet.
Cardinal Ravasi, the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, writes that Bowie wrestled for years with questions about God and the afterlife. "He would confess, with a smile on his lips, that as the years went by his questions were fewer but deeper and more painful," the cardinal says.
Regarding the musical career of the influential rock figure, Cardinal Ravasi writes:
Bowie's unique voice managed-- even if "laically," in a non-churchy way-- to make the souls of all those with a restless conscience vibrate.
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Further information:
- David Bowie: How the man who sold the world never stopped searching for God (Tablet)
- Vatican cardinal pays homage to David Bowie (CWN, 1/11)
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Posted by: dover beachcomber -
Jan. 16, 2016 1:01 AM ET USA
The materialism of most of the music industry is so rancid that almost any kind of spirituality can seem praiseworthy in comparison. I gather that this is what Cdl. Ravasi was getting at. But the *kind* of spirituality one chooses matters a great deal, for as Thomas รก Kempis wrote, "Not all that is high is holy."
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Posted by: 1Jn416 -
Jan. 15, 2016 8:16 PM ET USA
Oh dear. Perhaps the Cardinal and Fr. Rutler can have a face-off in America Magazine about this. Fr. Rutler's article: http://www.crisismagazine.com/2016/a-misplaced-grief-the-vatican-and-david-bowie
