Connecticut Catholic Corner: Vatican Museum

Showing posts with label Vatican Museum. Show all posts

Friday, October 17, 2014

Porsche vs Sistine Chapel: There is no substitute

The disappointments never end for me with this Pope.

As if this weeks Synod reports weren't bad enough, Pope Francis has rented out the Sistine Chapel to Porsche.

I guess anything for a buck goes these days- charity or not. It's one thing for visitors coming to see the wonders the Vatican has in its rich Catholic history (there is respect and awe in that)- quite another for a car manufacturer looking to promote its self under the false guise of 'charity'. Greed, self promotion and using holy things for gain. I have a problem with that, but Pope Francis clearly doesn't.

Anyone else have the scriptures of the money changers being driven out by Christ flash into their heads when you first heard this story?

Matthew 21:12-13New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)Jesus Cleanses the Temple

12 Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 He said to them, “It is written,

‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.”

Or maybe you were reminded of what helped make Porsche so famous in America during the 1980's? Tom Cruise dancing in his underwear having sex with a prostitute and taking his parents Porsche for a joy ride?

Poor judgement rules again at the Vatican. Is nothing sacred and off limits anymore?

Quote: "...the managing director of the Vatican Museums, Monsignor Paolo Nicolini, rejected suggestions the the chapel was available for rent.“The Sistine Chapel can never be rented because it is not a commercial place,” he told reporters on Thursday (Oct. 16)." [end quote]

Such hypocrisy. The Sistine Chapel has just been bought and paid for on behalf of a commercial event that will give money to the Vatican for the use of the Sistine Chapel by Porsche - a car manufacturer.

Do they really believe their own spin on this?

*sigh*

In Christ,

Julie @ Connecticut Catholic Corner

Source: http://www.porsche.com/international/motorsportandevents/travelclub/tours/rom/

Source: http://www.religionnews.com/2014/10/16/endangered-sistine-chapel-opened-outside-fundraisers/

Friday, December 13, 2013

Ancient Graveyard Found Beneath Vatican City

The public can now take a walk beneath Vatican City to an ancient burial ground first discovered during the construction of the Santa Rosa parking garage back in the 1950's by construction workers.

This ancient area beneath the Vatican opened to the public on Wednesday, December 11, 2013 for the first time.

Visitors can now walk around under Vatican City along a well lit pathway that winds its way through this ancient burial site. *Note, this area is not yet handicapped accessible.

The underground cemetery reveals individual tombs with amazing (now restored) painted tombstones and tiles. Also found among the tombs were cremation urns. Nearby charcoal, burnt pine kernels and pine-cone scales used in the clay furnaces to cremate the bodies were also found.

"The new tour route winds its way through the remains of the necropolis, offering visitors the chance to admire the cemetery as a whole, but also to appreciate with a close-up view of the numerous decorations: marbles, mosaics, frescoes, stucco returned to its former glory after the recent restoration. Among the significant innovations of the excavation we report the discovery of a designated area for cremations (ustrino), which are rarely preserved in complexes of this type. Two new stores were set up with a thematic criterion concerning the furnishings used for funerary rituals, personal belongings of the deceased, the different What to do for the burial or cremation burial. A third new showcase illustrates the stratigraphic excavation 2009-2011 according to the method of archaeologists, in order to show a real 'split' synthetic section of the excavation. Along the tour route were also exposed other finds from the nearby areas of same Necropolis no longer visible (Sector dell'Annona) or not normally open to the public (Sector Galea), in order to complement and further enhance the museum display on the site."

Numerous altars litter the underground ancient cemetery as well, which were found to contain 'offerings to the dead' in the first century A.D. (a custom at the time).

The visitors walking tour of this ancient site offers interactive touch screens along the way to learn more about what the visitor is viewing as well as the history discovered here.