Pope’s talk inspires clergy on Vatican II, evangelization CAROL GLATZ CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
(CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING)
Priests of the Diocese of Rome attend an audience with Pope Benedict XVI in Paul VI hall at the Vatican Feb. 14.
VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI’s walk down memory lane, recalling his participation in the Second Vatican Council, was an inspiration, reviving renewed zeal for evangelization in this Year of Faith, a number of priests said. Every year, the day after Ash Wednesday, the pope, who is bishop of Rome, meets with the priests in his diocese, including foreign priests studying in Rome. About 3,500 priests in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall listened to the pope’s recollections and interpretation of what the council fathers intended 50 years ago. Father Ben Jerson Canete of the Philippine island of Mindanao, who is studying biblical theology at Rome’s Pontifical Urbanian University, said his
PAPAL TRANSITION: MORE COVERAGE INSIDE PAGE 2: Imagine you’re a cardinal-elector. PAGE 11: What about the pope’s unfinished encyclical? PAGE 13: A dozen influential cardinals to watch PAGE 22: Guide to key terms of the conclave familiarity with the themes discussed at the Second Vatican Council came from his university studies. SEE CLERGY, PAGE 21
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FEBRUARY 22, 2013
‘Objects of Belief ’ Vatican exhibit at de Young is first to focus on church’s collection of indigenous art VALERIE SCHMALZ CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
The de Young Museum in San Francisco is hosting the first ever exhibit outside e the Vatican dedicated solely to the Catholic Church’s urch’s collection of indigenous art and artifacts. s. “Objects of Belief from the Vatican: an: Art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas” opened ened Feb. 9 at the museum in Golden Gate Park. k. From the Vatican Museums’ collection off 80,000 Vatican ethnographic objects, Ethnological Museum director Jesuit Father Nicola Mapelli chose 39 which represent the collection’s breadth. All are unique pieces and most have never left the Vatican before, he said. aid. “What is important for us is that at these objects are cultural ambassadors.. They can tell the story of the people who gave ave the objects to the pope,” said Father Mapelli, pelli, who since 2009 has traveled to Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America, Australia ralia and elsewhere to find descendants of the artists who sent objects to Rome. The exhibit “will show to the people eople of California the love and appreciation ion that the Catholic Church has for the cultures ultures and religions from all over the world,” orld,” Antonio Paolucci, director of all Vatican museums, wrote in a Jan. 22 letter to San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore vatore J. Cordileone. He noted that “for the first time since its beginning in 1692 … there re will be an exhibit outside the Vatican ican dedicated to this hidden treasure.” ” The Ethnological Museum sent many of its best known and treasured pieces to San Francisco. Among them, a Mexican stone sculpulpture representing the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl or “feathered serpent”; a bark mask crafted for
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Biographer: Pope ‘exhausted, disheartened’
the pope in Tierra del Fuego nearly 100 years ago; and a rare carved wooden representation of the god Tu sent to the pope in 1836 from missionaries in the Gambier Islands in French Polynesia. The exhibit includes Polynesia two pieces of Christian art. One is a bronze crucifix made by the people of Congo in the 17th Bakongo p The other is a wampum belt century. Th sent to the p pope in the 1830s from the Algonquin tribes near Quebec, Algonqu Canada. Canada Most of the objects in the Ethnological Museum collection, nol and most of the objects in the de Young exhibit, were given to Pope Pius XI for the Mission Exposition of 1925, an exhibit of 100,000 objects (PHOTO COURTESY THE VATICAN MUSEUMS) in 26 pavilions A bronze crucifix made in the Vatican by the Bakongo people City State in of Congo in the 17th Rome that drew century is one of two a million people, pieces of Christian art Father Mapelli in the de Young Museum said. In 1926, exhibit of Vatican treasures. Pope Pius XI founded the Va Vatican Ethnological Museum. “Racism was on the rise,” said Father Mapelli, and the e exhibit was a way to show the Church’s outlook to “all the world, Catholic Churc in appreciation of cultures all over the world, racism. That was very beautiful.” beyond any rac “It was one o of the largest exhibits of nonever held,” he said, a huge European art e undertaking w with “people carrying the crates then through the desert” as missionon canoes, the aries all over tthe world sent objects crafted by peoples. native peoples
OXFORD, England – Pope Benedict XVI was “exhausted and disheartened” well before his Feb. 11 resignation announcement, according to his German biographer, Peter Seewald. In an article, “Farewell to my pope,” in the Feb. 18 issue of Germany’s Focus weekly, Seewald said he had held several Vatican meetings with the 85-year-old pontiff over the six months while preparing a new biography. He added that he had “never seen Benedict XVI so drained of energy” and “deeply disheartened” as when he met him last summer. Asked what could still be expected of his pontificate, according to Seewald, the pope answered: “From me – not much now. I’m an old man and I’ve lost my strength. I think I’ve done enough.” The 58-year-old Seewald, a fellow-Bavarian and former editor of Germany’s Der Spiegel weekly, has published several interview-based books on Pope Benedict, including a biography in 2006 and the 2010 best-seller, “Light of the World.” He said the pope told him the third volume of his “Jesus of Nazareth,” published in November, would be his last book. However, he denied that the 2012 “VatiLeaks” scandal had been a reason for the pontiff ’s resignation and said Pope Benedict had merely voiced incomprehension at the decision of his former butler, Paolo Gabriele, to leak information. “It’s true the butler’s betrayal was a painful experience,” Seewald told the Munich-based Focus, which was launched in 1993 and is Germany’s third-largest weekly. “But it certainly didn’t influence his decision in any important way. In our 90-minute talk at Castel Gan-
SEE EXHIBIT, PAGE 21
SEE WRITER, PAGE 21
JONATHAN LUXMOORE CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
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