The Jesuits' church conservation project : sacred art as a vehicle for re-evangelisation in Malta

Abstract

This paper investigates the Jesuits鈥� Church conservation project in Valletta, Malta, as a compelling model for how sacred art and heritage restoration can be revitalised into a comprehensive programme of re-evangelisation in a secular age. Rooted in Pope Benedict XVI鈥檚 theological vision of the Via Pulchritudinis鈥攖he Way of Beauty鈥攊t contends that sacred spaces, when restored and animated through artistic excellence, do not merely preserve the past but prophetically engage the present. The study focuses on the Oratory of the Immacolata, where conservation was matched by a cultural programme that integrates sacred music, iconography, literature, and dramatic arts. This multidimensional approach offers not only aesthetic renewal but a pastoral and catechetical space capable of reawakening the spiritual imagination. Engaging with Charles Taylor鈥檚 notion of the 鈥渋mmanent frame鈥� and Bishop Robert Barron鈥檚 emphasis on beauty as a universal path to transcendence, the paper explores how such programming constitutes a 鈥渟acramental interruption鈥濃�攁n aesthetic and spiritual resonance that reaches hearts where argument cannot. By weaving together the theological, artistic, and pastoral strands of sacred expression, the Jesuits鈥� Church project illustrates how beauty, in all its liturgical and cultural forms, can once more become a privileged path of encounter with the divine in an age of disenchantment.