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.
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
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