Love is Our Mission was the theme for the World Meeting of Families, which took place here in Philadelphia this past September. I had to wait till after the event to pour through hundreds of images of Pope Francis to get all the specific details for this design. I chose to pose him in front of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul. The composition had many objectives, it had to balance with the Divine Mercy medallion right next to it, and tie to the St. Thérèse and St. Louis and Zélie Martin medallions I did in another set of narthex doors. More on them in another post.

Milano-Ti™ titanium etched glass medallion of Pope Francis Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.

In the final stage of etching the Pope Francis medallion.

Plenty of detail in John Notman's Roman-Corinthian architecture and all the detail in the Papal vestments. It takes a delicate touch to keep that detail, I can assure you.

Just in time for Christmas and the beginning of the Jubilee Year of Mercy... I installed one of my new etched glass, laminated doors with an original medallion of Divine Mercy at Annunciation BVM Church in Havertown, PA. The composition includes St. Peters Basilica in the background and my original version of St. Faustina's vision of Divine Mercy. It's one of a pair of doors and medallions the other being Pope Francis from his visit to Philadelphia which I'll share next.

Finished Divine Mercy medallion "Be merciful even as your Father is merciful", executed in Milano-Ti™, titanium etched glass.

I'm just getting started on etching here, but it gives you the scale I'm working at. All that great Renaissance architecture, Bramante, Michelangelo, and Bernini gave me loads of details to spend many hours with!

Etching with Milano-Ti™, titanium etched glass the Divine Mercy medallion