Ever since its very beginnings, the Catholic Church has held the "fine arts" in high regard and saw in them a close ally in the apostolate for the general purpose of glorifying God and sanctifying and edifying the faithful.(33) According to the words of Pope John Paul II, the Church "needs the arts for the transmission of her message."(34)
The Church has "always promoted and favored the progress of the arts, and she admits for the service of religion everything good and beautiful the human mind has brought forth in the course of the centuries, while, of course, safeguarding liturgical laws."(35)

The Second Vatican Council emphasizes that "the Church has, with good reason, always reserved to herself the right to pass judgment upon the arts, deciding which of the works of artists are in accordance with faith, piety, and cherished traditional laws, and thereby fitted for sacred use."
According to the Council it is the task of the bishops to "remove from the house of God and from other sacred places those works of artists which are repugnant to faith, morals, and Christian piety, and which offend true religious sense either by depraved forms or by lack of artistic worth, mediocrity, and pretense."

Therefore the Council urges that schools or academies for sacred art be founded for the formation of artists "so as to imbue them with the spirit of sacred art," so that they may produce works of art for God's glory and praise, suited for Catholic worship and the edification and instruction of the faithful.(36)