On Saturday, April 12, 2025, the Dominican Province of St. Thomas Aquinas of Belgium and the Netherlands hosted “Art and Preaching: Art as a Form of Preaching”, a province-wide gathering of the Dominican Laity held at the historic St. Paul’s Church in Antwerp. The keynote speaker, Fr. Cristóbal Torres, OP, Promoter for the Dominican Laity, gave a presentation on the history of the comics medium and the graphic novel as a form of preaching. Presentations were also given by Mr. Jacques Noé, OP, who explored the spirituality of his work as a Byzantine iconographer; and by visual artist Fr. Francis Akkara, OP, who spoke about the intersection of the personal and the spiritual in his paintings. All three speakers also shared samples of their work.
Among those present were Fr. Bernard de Cock, OP, Provincial Promoter of the Dominican Laity; Mrs. Annemie Deckers, OP, Provincial President of the Laity; and approximately 50 Lay Dominicans representing Francophone, Netherlandish-, and German-speaking Lay Fraternities from across Belgium and the Netherlands. The Saturday gathering culminated in the celebration of Palm Sunday at St. Paul’s the following day.
