Cuban painter Alexis Leiva (Kcho) participated in an audience that His Holiness Pope Francis offered at the Vatican's Sistine Chapel in Rome on Friday.

In exclusive statements to Prensa Latina, the 53-year-old painter and engraver said that the Pope’s message was powerful, enlightening, and necessary.

Kcho highlighed Pope Francis’s words on the role of artists, intellectuals, and poets and their possible positive influence in the face of many problems, such as war, hunger, and a lack of humanity that affect today’s world.

He emphasized his call on artists to fight for the future of humanity and continue to work for a world of peace, harmony, and love, where beauty prevails as an antidote against everything evil.

The Cuban painter and sculptor also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Vatican Museum’s Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art (1973-2023) on Thursday.

Organized by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, the event aims to promote the strong bonds between the Catholic Church and art in the world.

In May 2014, Kcho inaugurated his “Via Crucis” solo exhibition at the Renaissance Hall of the Holy See’s Palazzo della Cancelleria, featuring 29 unpublished paintings, drawings, and sculptures, which were highly acclaimed by both public and critics.