(LifeSiteNews) — “Godmother of Punk” Patti Smith opened the Holy See’s Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.

Together with Soundwalk Collective, Patti Smith presented what she referred to as “Sonic Prayer” in the Church of Santa Maria di Nazareth, known as the Church of the Scalzi, for the exhibition project promoted by the Dicastery for Culture and Education, Vatican News reported.

Smith recited poetry “invoking the Virgin Mary and the birth of Jesus,” and “performed new songs written for ‘The Ear is the Eye of the Soul,’ an ensemble of new commissions by 24 artists, presented by The Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See,” according to Ocula. 

“If we have the calling of an artist, we cannot run away from it because we will be drawn back,” Smith told her audience during the exhibition. “It reminds us that it is our mission to communicate, within our body of work, the visionary imagination. To create work that will incite, excite and inspire the people.”

Other artists who performed along with Smith at the Holy See Pavilion included FKA Twigs, whose performances are often sexually explicit, and Brian Eno, a musician, sound designer and record producer who used to style himself androgynously.

Smith is a singer, songwriter, and poet known for her influential early role in shaping punk music. Her fame peaked in the late 1970s with her biggest hit, “Because the Night,” a sensual song that declares the “night belongs to lust.” One of her best-known lyrics is “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine.”

This morning, Leo XIV met with the “Godmother of Punk”, outspokenly pro-abortion and pro-LGBT Patti Lee Smith.

And he couldn’t meet with the SSPX.

In 2022 she called the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade “terrible” and said it broke her heart. pic.twitter.com/wH7aulPrwR

— John-Henry Westen (@JhWesten) July 31, 2026

The secular artist has publicly supported legal abortion. In 2018, she said that “saving the lives of young women is more important than any ideology” in the belief that legal abortion, which kills unborn babies, “saves the lives” of mothers by preventing them dying by performing abortions themselves.

In 2022, Smith called the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade “terrible” and said it broke her heart.

Instead of giving exposure to musicians like Smith and FKA Twigs, who have promoted sin in their music and public remarks, the Vatican has the opportunity to showcase and meet with artists who promote the Catholic faith like the “post-punk” band Hallowed, which promotes orthodoxy and good morals while appealing to the youth.

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