By Amy Guckeen, Special to your Catholic Herald

MILWAUKEE — It’s almost as if God himself is smiling on the Milwaukee Public Museum.

With the Feb. 4 opening of “Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes,” the largest tour of Vatican objects, museum staff are excited for this rare opportunity to get a peek at objects that trace the Roman Catholic faith over the past 2,000 years.

“If ever there was such a thing as divine intervention in the life of an institution, this is it,” said Dan Finley, president of the Milwaukee Public Museum.

The museum expects that the exhibit, which runs through May 7, will draw viewers from not only the Milwaukee area, but also surrounding states, as this is the tour’s last North American stop, and only Midwest venue.

“It is an extraordinary exhibition that will mesmerize visitors of all backgrounds,” Finley said. “The museum is delighted to provide the Milwaukee community and visitors to the region with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see timeless works of art in such a meaningful context.”

Msgr. Roberto Zagnoli, curator of the Vatican Museums, was at the Milwaukee Public Museum last week for the uncrating of four of the objects to be showcased in the exhibit. The Mandylion of Edessa, considered to be the oldest known representation of Christ, was one of the pieces uncrated.

“The true meaning of this exhibit is the dialogue it will open up with all people in all the world,” Zagnoli said. “They can now entertain themselves with the truth.”

“The Milwaukee Public Museum provides the ideal venue for this extraordinary exhibition on the role of the papacy,” said Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan in a museum-issued press release. “The exhibition is sure to inspire and educate Catholics and non-Catholics alike on the successor of St. Peter, his role in promoting international peace and justice, and his historical commitment to increasing dialogue with other world religions.”

The experience is likely to be a thought-provoking and emotional experience for those who walk through its doors. Visitors can expect to be immersed in a multi-sensory experience, beginning with a three-minute introductory video. The exhibit itself, which holds more than 300 objects, has been modeled after the Vatican, with walls, doors, ceilings, and foundations recreated to look exactly like the Vatican, giving visitors an authentic feel, as if they are walking through the Vatican itself.

The exhibition consists of 12 galleries, developed along six themes:

• Reproduction of the Tomb of St. Peter;
• Building of the Basilicas, the Sistine Chapel;
• Papal Liturgies;
• Into the World;
• Recent Papal History and;
• Into the New Millennium.

Highlights of the exhibit include the Papal Tiara of Pope Pius IX, a Buddhist Thanka presented by the Dalai Lama to Pope John Paul II and objects used during the election of Pope Benedict XVI. Other items include personal items of the popes, official diaries from papal conclaves, marble sculptures and intricately embroidered silk vestments. One of the final stops of the tour is a bronze cast of the hand of Pope John Paul II, which visitors can touch as they exit.

February 2, 2006, Herald of Hope

Museum exhibit is box seat to history

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan

Seven is indeed our lucky number. Milwaukee is the seventh, and last, community to host the acclaimed St. Peter and the Vatican exhibit, a collection of more than 300 items on loan from the celebrated Vatican Museum, some dating back more than 1600 years. The Milwaukee Public Museum will host this exciting exhibit, opening Feb. 4 through May 7, and has done splendidly in preparing for it, promoting it, and arranging it attractively.

For us, this project has a spiritual, religious significance

But people of all faiths, or none at all, will discover here an enlightening treatment of the oldest continual authority in civilization, the papacy. The Successor of St. Peter, the Bishop of Rome, the pope, has been a towering presence and normative influence in world history, especially since the fourth century. Historians have observed that the popes provided the cohesion needed in the Western world after the Roman Empire fell.

Thus, the popes became leaders in the promotion of peace, in projects of diplomacy, justice, and charity, in the discovery of new continents, in the world political scene, especially in what is now Italy (the former Papal States), and in fostering arts, education, and literature.

Sometimes, sadly, the pope’s spiritual identity as Vicar of Christ on earth, and successor of St. Peter, became clouded over by corruption and immorality. It’s all part of the terribly interesting and messy history of the papacy.

We’ve got a box seat on that history during the next few months. Throughout the centuries, the pope has encouraged and sponsored grand projects of art. One thinks, of course, of the Sistine Chapel, or the Pieta. Today, the Vatican sees itself as a custodian of these works of art, holding them as a service to humanity. Critics of the Vatican — always numerous — complain that the church should sell all of this and give it to the poor. Of course, how do you put a price on the Pieta?

The church encouraged art to praise God and to inspire people, not to collect pieces. She holds these works in stewardship for humanity, displaying them as a classroom of beauty, truth, wisdom, and virtue, rather than hiding them or selling them off to private collections.

We have the opportunity to view some of them at our own museum. You will find it colorful, enlightening, intriguing, uplifting. Peter, the first pope, was a man of faith, love, and passion, a saint. He was also a man of impetuosity, temper, stubbornness, pride, and cowardice, a sinner. Among his 266 successors have been both, saints and sinners.

Come see some evidence of both.

Admission prices are $18.50 for adults (16-61), $17.50 for seniors (62 plus) and $11.50 for children (3-15). Tickets can be purchased by phone at (414) 278-2728 or (888) 700-9069. Tickets are also available online at the Milwaukee Public Museum web site.

Be An Informed Catholic!


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