Catholic Religious Brother Sketches Images to Birth a Renewed Church

Brother Michael McGrath, OSFS

A Catholic artist, who is also a vowed religious Brother,  has opened up about how sketching enables him to process difficult times during his life.

Brother Mickey McGrath, OSFS, an artist whose works have been seen in countless Catholic publications, writes in a blog post for Outreach that “Drawing is my favorite way to be contemplatively present to the present moment.” 

As part of his reflections, he shares about a time when one of his close priest-friends died of AIDS. He says that his religious community  handled the death with respect and dignity, but he knows that the the time, this kind of response was not typical:

“Much of the Christian world at large was filled with fear and angry judgment leveled at the gay community. As an artist, my response in that challenging time was to paint an image of Christ holding a young man in his arms with the words from Night Prayer: “Night holds no terror for me sleeping under God’s wings.” It was not only a consolation for me, but a gentle reminder that nothing should be more important to a Catholic Christian than the basic law and rule of the Sacred Heart of Christ: to love, to seek love, to share love, and to be love.”

McGrath says he was  inspired by the artist Frederick Franck, who, with no connections to the Vatican, but with great admiration for Pope John XXIII, traveled to Rome to sketch scenes at the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. Franck left Rome as an official artist of the  Council. McGrath says he views Franck as “the ultimate creative outsider whose drawings, reflections and observations are as relevant to me today as they ever were.”

Franck’s example inspired McGrath to follow in his footsteps by traveling to Rome last year to paint scenes from the General Assembly of the Synod on Synodality. He saw this meeting as the historic continuation of the reforms of Vatican II” and he wanted to witness it  “with my own eyes and hands.”

McGrath was granted access to the Vatican’s Paul VI Aula where synod delegates were meeting so he could capture what was happening at the gathering. He sat with a small group of journalists in the press booth, which overlooks the delegates. McGrath was only given 45-minutes to sketch the scene, which he described as: 

“Lots of men dressed in clerical attire sitting alongside other men in suits and ties. But I was most pleased to note the presence of many women, some in veiled religious habits, all of them seated at the same round tables as the men.”

McGrath says the synod meeting left him hopeful and focused on the future. 

As queer Catholics or those who support them, it can be hard to remember that while the church has a long way to go—it has also come a long way too. McGrath reflected this sentiment in his piece, concluding: 

“That the possibility of diaconate ordination for women and priesthood for married men, as well as official recognition that LGBTQ folks are not seriously disordered would have to come at a much later time. After all, 60 years after the Second Vatican Council, we continue to see its vision take flesh—in part through the Synod on Synodality itself. This was simply a time to listen to the voice of the Spirit, a time to put judgments aside. The fact that the synod was happening at all in this very slow moving ship of a church was of historic significance, a small step and a giant leap at the very same time.”

–Elise Carson-Holt, New Ways Ministry, March 10, 2025

To view more of Brother Michael’s artwork and to learn about the retreat programs he leads, visit. www.bromickeymcgrath.com