Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Religious Music & Entertainment
Vitae Summit Organizer Works From the Heart to Bring Showbiz to the Pope

Vitae Summit Organizer Works From the Heart to Bring Showbiz to the Pope

Last updated on: August 30, 2022 at 1:11 pm by Kate O'Hare

Vitae Summit Organizer Works From the Heart to Bring Showbiz to the Pope 2022-08-30T13:11:24-08:00 Kate O'Hare

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

PHOTO: Luis Quinelli (second from the right) and collaborators meet with Pope Francis (center)

Argentinean businessman/philanthropist Luis Quinelli’s Vitae Summit, bringing top stars together with Pope Francis at the Vatican, is happening — and he can’t quite believe it.

How did the Vitae Summit Begin?

In a recent interview in a Hollywood hotel, Quinelli says, “We presented the idea of Vitae Summit, and he immediately said, ‘Yes, yeah, come on. Let’s go. Let’s do it.’ Now, we didn’t convince him or something like this. It’s the pope.”

From August 31-Sept. 1, the first-ever Vitae Summit brings renowned artists — including Andrea Bocelli, Denzel Washington, Marcus Mumford, Eduardo Verastegui and Jonathan Roumie (full list below)– to the Casina Pio IV in Vatican City, home to the Pontifical Academies of Science and Social Sciences.

Luis Quinelli

Boasting support from Queen Sofia of Spain, the summit also includes Pope Francis.

On a 2013 visit to Rome, Quinelli (like the pope, an Argentine of Italian heritage) viewed the great art treasures of the Vatican and thought about the time when the Church was behind the inspiration and/or creation of much of the art, music and literature of the Western world.

“When you visit the Vatican,” says Quinelli, “you see we were mainstream, and it came from the Church, from the center of the Church, from the heart of the Church.

“So, visiting Vatican museums in that year, I thought, well, it must happen again. We need to connect all the dots again.”

Setting a Meeting With the Pope

In 2017, Quinelli and his collaborators in the international non-profit organization Vitae Global requested, and received, their first audience with the pope.

“We had a very interesting meeting with him,” recalls Quinelli, “because we explained all the things we were doing.

TV series movies, festivals in the Latin American context. And suddenly, in a moment during the meeting, he started to say, ‘Well, but this is the thing I’m always saying and writing, but we need to have young people, music, joy.’

“And we started suddenly [to have a] kind of brainstorm meeting with the Pope. He says, ‘Whoa, you need to go with the queen of Spain. She’s a good friend of mine. She’s a good person. You need to talk with her.’ …

“He started talking about queens and kings and presidents like I am talking about the people from two blocks from here.”

What Does the Vitae Summit Hope to Do?

Quinelli continues, “These kind of things are in his heart. And he’s focused on how to bring hope again, bring encounter, bring love, bring healing in these challenging times, where we are in the middle of a lot of polarization, fights, and the negative messages.

“Our proposal with Vitae Summit is how we can change the conversation, because it’s not so far, the idea of changing our reality. It starts with changing our conversation, how we can bring hope again, how we can bring healing encounters.

“And thinking about that, arts and artists have an important role, because we know that the entertainment industry, media arts, not only shows the reality but shapes the reality, too — people’s hearts, mind and spirit.”

Who’s Coming to the Vitae Summit?

The full list of participants is below. Quinelli says that, while the invitees will be Christian, not all will be also Catholic.

Also, they don’t have to be perfect people.

Says Quinelli, “[They will be] Christian of some kind, some connection with the spirituality. We are not asking for a good behavior certificate for each person that is coming, obviously.

“But we were looking for artists that are doing beautiful things.”

What Is the Goal of the Vitae Summit?

Ultimately, Quinelli wants to find people whose work touches the heart.

“I can talk about the things we believe about producing entertainment products and art,” says Quinelli. “Obviously, all different kind of work in the Body of Christ is important. Our job is not more important than any other work and mix of things that other organizations are doing.

“But related to Vitae Summit and the things we are going to do there, our humble way of adding value, or our focus or point of view, is the majority of challenges we are facing as humanity comes from man’s heart. …

“So we feel that if we work in our hearts, we are going to affect possibly all the rest of the challenges. So we are working the main root of all the problems we are facing today.”

Sitting in the heart of Hollywood, Quinelli also says, “This is a reason why we say in a very funny way, this is the Vatican of the entertainment industry, L.A., Hollywood. You have the spiritual Vatican on the other side of the ocean.”

What Will We Hear from the Vitae Summit?

Quinelli says that most of the people they contacted were eager to come, and the main difficulty was just juggling schedules. The sessions will be private, to allow the artists and the pope to think and speak openly — but the artists are free to post on their own social-media accounts, if they wish.

There will be an announcement after the end of the process.

“We understood that there is a lack of community,” says Quinelli. That is something important. Thinking about how we can do better movies, community is one of the keys.

“And the other one is this process of thinking together and developing things all together, because there are artists that are doing great things, but this is not enough to change the culture. We need to work all together on this idea. And the pope is, I think, the only man on the earth that can bring all the people together. …

“We’re going to have communication during the event and after the event, too. But yeah, we are not in a rush of producing something because of this Summit. Our first goal is to put all that hearts together there.”

Only the Beginning …

Quinelli hopes this is just the first of more Vitae Summits to come.

“We need several Summits,” he says, “because it is impossible to put all the people in the same day and same time. So, we want to have the possibility of having this conversation with all of them.

“One of the main skills of the pope is, he’s a good listener. He loves to listen to people. And I think this is an invitation to do the same. We can do the same. This is possibly the tough part of a conversation, being a good listener

“I think we are not spending so much time listening to the other people. This is the beginning.”

UPDATE: Here is the full list of participants, from Vatican News:

VITAE Summit guest list

Jessica Oyelowo

David Oyelowo

Edwina Findley

Jonathan Roumie

Patricia Heaton

Eduardo Verastegui

Denzel Washington

Hayley Atwell

Darius Marder

Issac Chung

Pete Doctor

Pauletta Washington

Dan Lin

Marcus Mumford

Andrea Boccelli

J Balvin

Bull Nene

Alessia Cara

Julio Reyes Copello

Eva Cavalli

Alexander Acha

Alejandro Roemmers

Here is the English-language version of Vitae Global’s introductory video, posted last November:

Image: Vitae Global

Don’t miss a thing: Subscribe to all that I write at Authory.com/KateOHare

About Kate O'Hare

Based in Los Angeles, Kate O'Hare is a veteran entertainment journalist, Social Media Content Manager for Family Theater Productions, and a rookie screenwriter. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

August 27, 2022

Has 'Padre Pio' Star Shia LaBeouf Actually Converted to Catholicism? Not Quite.

Next Post

August 31, 2022 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power': Sound, Size and Galadriel: Warrior Princess

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books breaking news digital media Faith practice food interview jane the virgin media movies music NFL Pope Francis Showbiz 101 social media sports technology television Uncategorized video

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz