If some of you can recall, in 2005, the flamboyant rock star Bono met Pope John Paul II in an audience of what seem to be the pontiff’s manifestation of hi playful side. Void of being starstruck with anyone no matter how famous they are, John Paul II instead took interest on Bono’s Sunglasses and even tried them on. ‘Holy father, do you want a pair of fly shades?’ and he said ‘yes’ and he put them on.” It seems that Bono will have a second chance of meeting a Pope in his lifetime.

Vatican officials announced that Pope Benedict XVI has invited hundreds of Artists to meet with him for the purpose of rekindling the centuries old relationship between faith and art. It was reported that over 500 people in the world of art, theater, literature and music have been asked to gather with the pope under the legendary Michelangelo frescoes in the Sistine Chapel Nov. 21.

Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said the meeting was to be the first of many initiatives aimed at bridging the gap that has developed between spirituality and artistic expression over the last century or so.

At a news conference at the Vatican Sept. 10, Archbishop Ravasi said that separation could best be seen in the art and architecture of many modern churches, which he said “do not offer beauty, but rather ugliness.”

He said the church hoped that dialogue could help artists regain the “transcendence” that once inspired the 16th-century painter and sculptor Michelangelo, his contemporaries and countless other artists of religious works over the centuries.

The guest list for the papal encounter is comprised of people who have made their mark in visual arts, architecture, literature, poetry, music and performing arts, including theater, dance, cinema and television.

Most of the list will be disclosed shortly before the event, but a few names of the invited were mentioned at the news conference: Italian film score composer Ennio Morricone, avant-garde theater director Bob Wilson, architect Daniel Libeskind, and Bono, the lead singer of the group U2. American video artist Bill Viola was asked but has already said he won’t be able to attend.

Archbishop Ravasi said the meeting was conceived as a continuation of earlier papal rapprochements with contemporary culture. Forty-five years ago Pope Paul VI had a similar encounter with artists in the Sistine Chapel and some years later opened the Collection of Modern Religious Art within the Vatican Museums complex. And ten years ago Pope John Paul II wrote his “Letter to Artists,” in which he complimented their work and urged a greater cooperation between the church and the arts.