The light of beauty that shines from within a work of art allows humankind to sense the truth of God’s unique plan for the world, Pope Benedict XVI said, noting that Vatican Museums are a place where “Christianity and culture, faith and art, the divine and the human constantly intertwine.”

In Nov. 24 evening remarks in the Hall of Blessings in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, the pope reminded Vatican Museums directors and employees that of the more than 4 million visitors to the museums this year – 200,000 more than in 2005 – a large part most "are not Catholics … and many are not even believers."

"The approach to Christian truth through artistic or socio-cultural expressions has a greater chance of appealing to the intelligence and sensitivity of people who do not belong to the Catholic Church, and who may sometimes nourish feelings of prejudice or indifference towards her,” he said.

In 1506, Pope Julius II purchased marble statue of Laocoon, a Trojan high priest and his two sons being strangled by a sea snake, which Pope Benedict called during his speech as “magnificent.”

That work became the centerpiece of a group of Vatican statues, which then grew into a papal collection that became the Vatican Museums. Today, the Vatican Museums now house about 150,000 works of art and artifacts divided into more than 25 distinct collections ranging from ancient Egyptian, Greek and Etruscan to the modern.

This year, the Laocoon has become the focus of a special exhibit and a special Vatican stamp.

“Visitors to the Vatican Museums, by dwelling in this sanctuary of art and faith, have the opportunity to 'immerse' themselves in a concentrated atmosphere of 'theology by images,'" Pope Benedict said.

The pope said that the "a truth written into the 'genetic code' of the Vatican Museums” demonstrates that the great Classical and Judeo-Christian civilizations “are not in opposition to one another, rather they come together in God's unique plan.”

Referring to the sculpture of Laocoon that could be defined as “profane,” Pope Benedict said that it, “in the setting of the Vatican, acquires its full and authentic light.”

“It is the light of human beings formed by God; of freedom in the drama of their redemption, drawn between earth and heaven, between flesh and the spirit. It is the light of a beauty that shines from within the work of art, and brings the spirit to open itself to the sublime, to the place where the creator encounters the creatures made in his image and likeness," he said.

"The museum truly shows how Christianity and culture, faith and art, the divine and the human, constantly intertwine,” Pope Benedict said.

“A temple of art and culture such as the Vatican Museums requires the beauty of the works to be accompanied by the beauty of the people who work there: a spiritual beauty that renders the atmosphere truly ecclesial, impregnating it with the Christian spirit," the pope told the museums employees.