The Plaza de San Pedro in the Vatican hosts a photographic exhibition under the title Women’s Cry (The Cry of Women) during the month of May. The exhibition aims to give voice to the pain and injustices suffered by some women around the world.
There are several occasions on which Pope Francis has recalled the purpose of the artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini when he made the great “colonnade” that frames Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican: to represent the maternal embrace of the Church that welcomes the faithful. and also non-believers.
The left part of this “embrace” is the enclave chosen for the Women’s Cry exhibition, promoted by the Holy See’s Dicastery for Communication together with the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (UMOF) and the “Hand Shake” company.
As explained by the organizers, in the presentation that took place on 2 May at the Holy See Press Office, the exhibition consists of 26 photographs taken by 8 international photographers “who accepted the challenge of giving voice to the cry of pain, to often hidden, from women in the world”.
According to María Lia Zervino, president of the UMOF, this exhibition in Saint Peter’s Square “ is a sign of how the Church does not leave suffering women alone ”. “He wants to embrace all the women of the world to give visibility and to improve their lives and those of their families,” she pointed out.
For the prefect of the Department for Communication, Paolo Ruffini, these images “show beauty to delve into pain” and help believers and non-believers to understand pain through beauty.
In addition, each image in the exhibition is accompanied by one of the phrases from Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli tutti.