By Eugenio Murrali
Writing and images come together in “More Than a Thousand Words: Images from L’Osservatore Romano,” an exhibition installed in the Vatican Pinacoteca (Vatican Art Gallery).
It was inaugurated on Wednesday, Sep 30, with a presentation event that explained how the exhibit, a journey through darkness and light, speaks of peace, hope, suffering, and salvation.
Safeguarding human dignity
At the inauguration, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations of the Secretariat of State, said:
“The title recalls a simple but particularly meaningful truth for a newspaper: there are images that, through their immediacy, succeed in communicating what many words sometimes struggle to express. A photograph, a drawing, or an illustration can not only accompany a text, but also offer a key to understanding it and, in some way, to looking at reality with new eyes.”
Quoting Pope Leo XIV’s address to representatives from the cinema industry on Nov 15, 2025, he said that an authentic image serves to “safeguard and protect the dignity of people.”
Information and formation
Sister Raffaella Petrini, President of the Governorate of Vatican City State, who also spoke at the inauguration, reviewed the history and values of the Popes’ newspaper.
“Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Pope Paul VI, described L’Osservatore Romano as a ‘very unique newspaper’ in 1961, in an article dedicated to the Holy See’s daily on the occasion of the centenary of its foundation,” Sister Petrini said.
“The same Pontiff,” she continued, “emphasized that L’Osservatore Romano is not simply a daily newspaper that provides information but also a newspaper of formation.
She highlighted also the power of visual information: “The reports and features tell us every day what is happening, but images often continue to speak even after the pages have been archived and the news is no longer new.”
“From its origins,” she added, “L’Osservatore has presented itself as an echo of the Magisterium, in which Catholics throughout the world have had the opportunity to follow the Pope’s attitude closely and read his messages, recognizing themselves as part of one Church.”
L’Osservatore has helped ensure that the Pope’s voice became, for many people—even those who were distant or suffering—“a source of encouragement that strengthened their sense of closeness to and belonging to the Christian community.”
From the past to the future
The exhibition features the first issue from 1861, the “Habemus Papam” headlines from Pope Leo XIII to Leo XIV, editions with the full-page newspaper sheet, photographs with Pius XII, and eventually one can see the use of color.
However, the photographs and illustrations above all tell the story of the graphic transformation introduced on Oct 4, 2020, which gave greater prominence to images.
“Without a doubt, a great deal of the credit for this transformation must be attributed to the pontificate of Pope Francis,” explained Andrea Monda, editor-in-chief of L’Osservatore Romano.
“Bergoglio’s language was already highly evocative, and he himself repeatedly expressed, both publicly and privately, the idea that ‘an image is worth more than a thousand words.’”
Making goodness grow
Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, observed that the exhibition was conceived as a journey within ourselves, particularly as a way of changing our way of looking at things.
He referred, among other things, to Pope Leo’s theme for the 61st World Day of Social Communications: “A New Gaze: Paying Attention in the Age of Clickbait”
Reflecting on both the positive and negative aspects of reality, Ruffini spoke of the challenge embraced by L’Osservatore and the Dicastery: “To see, therefore, even the disgusting face of evil, in order to accept it and redeem it” and “to see, even in hell, as Italo Calvino wrote, what is not hell. To bear witness to it even through storytelling, to testify to the transformative power of goodness.”
The power of images
Andrea Monda, who presented the exhibition, then spoke of the images on display as, in their own small way, a biblia pauperum—a “Bible of the poor”—and recalled the homily Pope Leo XIV delivered in the cathedral of Metz, in which the Pontiff said:
“Anyone who enters is thus immersed in a rich ‘biblia pauperum,’ a source of prayer and meditation, through the reflections of a thousand colors. In this place of light, the splendor of the historic stained-glass windows has recently been enhanced by the genius of Marc Chagall.”
“There is our present,” declared Barbara Jatta, Director of the Vatican Museums, “in the photographs that L’Osservatore Romano chooses every day to describe the reality around us, to give visual form to the present and to imagine the future that awaits us.”
The hand of the illustrators
In his address, Andrea Monda retraced the editorial work of the last years and how the newspaper has changed.
He also explained how the exhibition came about, noting, among other things, an initial suggestion from Alessandro Gisotti, Deputy Editorial Director of the Dicastery for Communication, who had realized that an exhibition could be created from the newspaper’s front pages.
There was also a second suggestion from Archbishop Gallagher, who had also highlighted the value of some of the drawings.
The second section of the exhibition—created with the substantial work of the Vatican Museums’ exhibitions office —is devoted to the designers and illustrators of the newspaper’s regular features.
The panels display images created for the Gospel and the Pope’s catecheses, featuring artists with distinctive styles.
There is also space for the back cover, where, since January 2025, large-scale drawings have accompanied the Saturday stories: original works written for L’Osservatore by Italian authors.
This narrative and poetic dimension is another distinctive feature of the newspaper’s imaginative transformation.
At the center of the room, a newspaper-library table allows visitors to browse the daily newspaper as well as the monthly magazines Donna, Chiesa, Mondo and L’Osservatore di Strada. – Vatican News
