An artistic masterpiece conceived by the Renaissance master Raphael was on display for one week in the Sistine Chapel to help celebrate the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death.

Pope Francis said he dreams of an Amazon region where the rights of the poor and indigenous are respected, local cultures are preserved, nature is protected, and the Catholic Church is present and active with “Amazonian features.”

The same book that inspired St. Francis in 1208 is expected to inspire thousands of others as the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore places it on public display for the first time in 40 years Feb. 1 through May 31.

With subjects as varied as saints and Madonnas, Martin Luther King Jr. and Harry Potter, madonnari came from Italy and Belgium, Germany and Mexico, along with about 10 local artists and local students.

If you’re looking for an artful way to prioritize Christ this Advent season, visit the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.

“This icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help came to accompany her sons and daughters – all of us migrants here, all of us new to this country,” the superior general said.

Versions of the sculpture have found homes across the globe and, now, in an urban park where people experiencing homelessness find refuge.

A lightweight, resin replica of the statue, which was created by Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz, has traveled around the Archdiocese of Baltimore since February.

Richard Wilbur died last month. He was, Dana Gioia said, the finest poet of his generation and the greatest American Christian poet since Eliot. 

William L. Gaudreau, a leading post-Vatican II architect who designed many churches, school buildings and other structures in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, died July 6 of heart failure at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Baltimore. He was 84.