492. Maurizio Costanzo and The Church of the Artists

Maurizio Costanzo was a Television host and had a popular late-night show for almost forty years. His incredible popularity was based on the fact that he was the total emblem of humanity. If ever a fully-fledged human being existed, he was the one.

His humanity was the unseen kind which permeated society like a discreet perfume – his charisma was so enviable that the Mafia tried to kill him twice. Even though, in the last explosion, in 1993, six cars were completely destroyed whilst another sixty badly wrecked and the surrounding buildings damaged – Maurizio Costanzo escaped without a scratch.

He died a few days ago from pneumonia at the age of eighty-four and they gave him a funeral at the Church of the Artists in the centre of Rome because that’s where non-believers end up for a funeral service. As the Priest said, he was a non-believer who believed. They also have a prayer for these kind of people that sums up this quality.

The Prayer addresses God as the Father of Beauty – it asks this omnipotent Creator to look gently, “upon us, on our work, on our everyday struggles – we are artists – your artists.”

The intimacy with the Creator and the humanity of this prayer reflects all that Maurizio Costanzo was and is even now – for like art – we do not die but are transformed.