Andy Warhol greets Pope John Paul II/a note on Andy's religion

By Mona Goldwater, Religions Ed.

No one really thought of Andy Warhol as being especially religious when he was alive.  He did, however, attend church regularly.

In an interview with Lee Radziwill, conducted by Warhol and Fred Hughes for the March 1975 Interview magazine, Andy talked about going to church regularly and taking communion "sometimes."

From the piece "Warhol at Home" in Sacred Monsters, Sacred Masters by John Richardson (published by Pimlico in England in 2001), page 247:

"To believe the envious Truman Capote, Andy was a Sphinx without a secret. In fact, he did have a secret, one that the kept dark from all but his closest friends: he was exceedingly devout - so much so that he made daily visits to the church of Saint Vincent Ferrer on the Upper East Side of Manhattan... Although famously thrifty, he was also secretly charitable. Besides giving financial support, he often spent evenings working in a shelter for the homeless run by the Church of the Heavenly Rest. It was not soppy social consciousness or guilt that prompted Andy's good works; it was atavism as personified by his adored and adoring mother, the pious Julia."

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