ARTICLES

Art to Glorify God

Visitors View Vatican Exhibit, Vent

BY ANNE KNIGHT

The San Diego Museum of Art is the fourth and last venue for “Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes,” described in the museum’s press release as “the largest exhibition of rare Vatican art and objects ever to tour North America.” The exhibition opened early in 2003, and prior to its San Diego stop, traveled to Houston, Fort Lauderdale and Cincinnati. It opened in San Diego on May 15 and continues through September 6th.

The 15,000-square-foot exhibit portrays the papacy’s 2,000-year history, starting with Saint Peter and ending with Pope John Paul II. It comprises over 390 historical and artistic objects, including liturgical items; papal vestments, rings and jewels, plus personal effects of Pope John Paul II, architectural renderings, rare documents, sculptures, paintings and other works of art on loan from the Vatican, including works by Giotto, Michelangelo, and Bernini. Items in the collection date from the second and third century to the last decade of the twentieth century, as well as the Jubilee Year 2000.

On Sunday, August 15, the Feast of the Assumption, lines of people waited outside the museum to enter the Vatican exhibition. As they were leaving, several visitors were asked their opinion of the exhibition, whether the experience affected their view of Catholicism, and whether the Church should keep highly valuable artistic and historic artifacts such as those they had just seen, or sell them and use the money for noble purposes, such as helping the poor.

Paul Bruce, a San Diego Catholic, answered, “I thought it was fascinating,” adding that he didn’t feel the exhibition had changed his view of Catholicism. Instead, he explained, “I saw it as history. It reminded me a lot of the Romanov jewels,” he said, referring to the museum’s popular “Jewels of the Romanovs” exhibit a few years ago, which featured artifacts and sacred objects associated with the history of the Russian czars. “I thought that was very fascinating.” Should the Church keep or sell its treasures? “You don’t get rid of stuff like that; it tells a story. You just don’t do it. That would be like the United States selling everything off from the presidents. Would the United States sell their history? If it did, how are you going to prove [its history]?”

Paula Bhalla, another San Diego Catholic, visited the exhibition with her husband, who is a Hindu. Mr. Bhalla commented that he found it very interesting and “it showed a lot of tradition.” The experience did “not really” alter his view of Catholicism. Paula, who was raised Catholic, was very positive about her experience and believes that the Church should retain its artistic and historic treasures.

A Catholic man from San Marcos, who requested anonymity, responded, “I loved it; it was great.” He described its impact on his view of the Church as “neither positive or negative. I’ve been to Rome; I’ve been to the Vatican.” As far as the Church’s possession of such treasures, he opined, “I think it’s fine [to keep them]. I’m a little sorry these were not originals; I would like to have seen originals ... they just have a lot more character to them.” Informed that the items were originals, he responded, “Some of them were original; a lot of them weren’t.”

Josefina Monge and Irma Mariscal, both Catholics from Tijuana, toured the exhibition with Father Nicolas Raygoza, a Catholic priest of the Tijuana diocese. They were all enthusiastic about the exhibit; Josefina commented that “Everything was fabulous.” She found the historical aspect particularly interesting. Did it change their views of Catholicism? Josefina said that her ideas on Catholicism were reinforced, in the positive sense. Father Raygoza pointed out that “the objects constitute a legacy that has come down to us. Now it is part of our faith, part of world history and part of our beliefs.

“It has a historic and cultural value,” Father Raygoza continued, “it’s part of mankind’s heritage.” Rather than sell items of such immense value, he suggested that it would be better to address other problems and issues affecting the less fortunate.

A Catholic couple requesting anonymity drove down from Chino Hills to attend the exhibition. “It was wonderful,” the wife commented. “It was a privilege to be here. It gave you the feeling that you were actually there; it definitely took you back in time.” How did the experience affect her view of Catholicism? “It made it deeper. It enriched my faith life.”

Should the Church keep or sell its treasures? “The Church has 2,000 years of history,” she answered, “so there’s going to be a lot accumulated. If we think about [the artifacts from] just one president’s term, how much of that is history? We want that because we want to be able to look back and view things in order.” She went on to explain that, for the same reasons, the Church should definitely maintain its collections of items illustrating Church history. She added that they planned to see the exhibit again.

Heike Krautschick was visiting from Vacaville in Northern California. She had purchased tickets in advance with plans to visit while in San Diego for a wedding. Heike is not Catholic but explained, “We have some Catholics in the family and some Protestants.” She calls herself a history buff.

How did she like the exhibit? “I loved it. It explained the rituals, ceremonies, et cetera. I had not been aware that it [the Vatican] was built on Saint Peter’s tomb, so there was a lot of education that I really appreciated. I appreciated the Church more for what they’re doing. There are a lot of things I disagree with, but I think it [the Church] is pretty beneficial to humankind as a whole. Sometimes we need to be reminded of certain things and this exhibit does that. It’s good to see art traveling abroad and to understand our own roots, regardless of where we come from, because we’re all rooted toward one, so in that sense, I really appreciated the exhibit and I’m glad I came.”

Asked whether the church should sell its treasures to benefit the poor, Krautschick responded, “That is one of my arguments about the Catholic Church. Over the centuries they’ve amassed a lot of arts and so on. And it’s not so much that they keep the art objects or that [they have] the Sistine Chapel or all these things that I think are the heritage of all humankind regardless of what religion. But I think the way the elite Church people live ... for instance, when I saw that each pope had to have a different papal robe, each one had to have a different ring, to me that part of it was a little bit excessive. That’s my belief.

“The rest of it, as far as the arts are concerned, I think it’s wonderful; it’s in good hands in the sense that it’s being kept alive. It’s not just that we appreciate the Church, per se, but in looking at the detailed work on the papal cloaks, etc., it’s a tremendous statement of the talents that some people have. To sew this and to put these things together — the artistry, the vision that went into all these objects, whether they be part of the Church or not — that in itself, I think, is a high tribute to the human talents and actually it is probably an inspiration of faith that they created these things. I know from history, delving back into the 13th and 14th centuries and so on, many died from lead poisoning from making these reliquaries ... the goldsmithing and so on. It was not a simple task for anyone, so that kind of meant, to me, sacrificing for God.”

A mother and her adult daughter, both from Chula Vista, requested anonymity. The mother is a Catholic and her daughter identified herself as a non-denominational Christian. Her mother had visited the Vatican two years ago, but said that she saw items in this exhibit that she hadn’t seen in Rome. The exhibition had clearly made an impression on her daughter: “I thought that the workmanship was hard to describe; it was incredible: the detail on the robes, the statues, especially Bernini ... and seeing some of Michelangelo’s sketches and walking across the plank [the exhibition’s recreation of the setting in which Michaelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling] and thinking,’Wow, he was way up here.’ I thought they did a really good job of [presenting] how majestic the pope’s stature is. He’s like royalty, the way that it’s portrayed. It’s incredible.”

Did the exhibition affect her view of Catholicism? “I think there’s too much focus on the pope, where it shouldn’t be the pope; it should be God. It should be Jesus, instead of the pope.” Her mother responded that her view didn’t change, because it was familiar to her: “No, it’s still the same as I learned when I was growing up.”

A Catholic father and his young adult son, visiting from Nogales, Mexico, had been sightseeing in Balboa Park when they saw a brochure for the exhibition and decided to see it. The father, who requested anonymity, spoke of the Vatican exhibit with enthusiasm. “I thought it was great; it was extremely detailed.” He said his view of Catholicism was unchanged and that the Church should keep its treasures: “These things have been acquired over many, many centuries.”

Vijay and Elizabeth Samalam, a married non-Catholic couple — expressed some disappointment about the exhibit. But, judging from the amount they had to say about it, they were stimulated by the experience. “I was a little disappointed,” Vijay began. “It was interesting; there’s no question about it. I think that the reason I was disappointed was not because of the information content, but because of the way it was arranged. It was crowded, it was dark; I didn’t like the way it was organized, with the winding, narrow passageways.” His wife, Margaret Stern, said, “I found it interesting. It was just a small section of the wealth [you see] at St. Peter’s. I mean, it’s definitely clear that the Catholic Church is very wealthy. They [the curators] eventually did explain everything; sometimes they didn’t explain it until the end; it would have been better right at the very beginning.”

Vijay: “I think what was missing was how the Catholic Church got to be so powerful and why it spread so rapidly. None of that came through in the exhibition, not for me, at least. I mean, here you have a religion of enormous reach and there’s nothing about how or why it happened.”

Margaret: “Then they threw in some other stuff, but the problem was that they didn’t connect it, so the whole thing was just Saint Peter’s Basilica and the fact that they found his bones and they could have had a little bit more on that. They started off with that, and then they thought, ‘Let’s throw in some of these cloaks.’ They had one section at the end — but it wasn’t translated — where they [showed] how the Catholic missionaries had gone into all the other countries.... That was kind of interesting, but it was more of an afterthought. It wasn’t unified.”

Vijay: “From what I read, it was absolutely fascinating the way the early Church developed, but this was so focused on St. Peter’s tomb and then the succession of popes building the basilica. That was the focus and I appreciate that. But the Church is so much bigger than that.... I would have liked a little bit more about why it is that it grew, how it grew, and in Rome, of all places. It would have been interesting to talk about those things. There was a lot of minutiae: a lot of little chalices and little candleholders and stuff.”

On the question of the Church keeping or selling its treasures? Vijay answered first, “I don’t think they should sell them.”

Margaret added, “A lot of the objects really only have meaning within the Church.... “The other thing [is that] they would be like all the other precious objects that people have in their house [if they were sold to private parties].”

Adopting his wife’s theme, Vijay said, “sending it to a wealthy millionaire’s house as part of his pet rock collection — I’m opposed to that completely. I would much rather have it as a collection where there is a much better chance that it will be offered to the people— more people, anyway.”

Richard and Veronica Cordova, a Catholic couple, drove down from Barstow with their two young children to see the exhibition. Daughter Jennifer was enthusiastic: “I thought it was exciting, amazing.” Son Jason added “I’ve never seen stuff like that; it was pretty cool.”

“Breathtaking; it brought tears to my eyes,” Veronica said, adding that she thought it was very appropriate to have seen the exhibition on the Feast of the Assumption.

Did the experience affect their view of Catholicism? Richard: “We’re actually pretty devoted Catholics. We’re pretty involved in our church; I’m a cantor in our church.”

His wife is an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist. Asked whether the church should keep or sell its treasures? Richard responded, “It’s something you really need to pray about. If during prayer, God does ask you to sell something, I think you should so that you could put your money into other places. When our time is up, we’re not going to take any of it with us anyway. But at the same time, you need to think about our traditions and our history. How are we going to pass on anything that has a memory to us, to our children and to their children?”

Patrick Bartolic and his five-year-old son, Christopher, drove down from Corona Del Mar to see the exhibition. They are Catholics. “I thought it [the exhibition] was fabulous,” said Patrick, who has also visited the Vatican. “Nothing compares to being there, of course. But to see this collection outside of the Vatican is such a rare opportunity for most people. When you’re at the Vatican, it’s like being at the Smithsonian; there’s so much that you’re overwhelmed. This was just a really great sort of historical tour, a synopsis that allows you to see some of the incredible art that’s been given to the Vatican over the 2,000 years.... I think ... that it illustrates the power of the Christian worldview. You see things like Constantine giving the Christians the right to worship, you see things that were given to the pope from the Dalai Lama and other religious leaders of the world. I think it, more than anything, illustrates the glory-to-God sort of awareness. I hear a lot of people say, ‘Why would the Church have this?’ But it’s really a gift to the Church from people, a way of them providing something spiritual as a gift, so I think it’s an obligation ... of the Church to maintain it and take care of it as an honor, like any gift.”

His comments dovetailed with the question of whether the Church should keep or sell its treasures. “Someone maybe labored for half or part of their life just to create something that was significant to them — their best work of art to glorify God. They gave it to the Church and the Church respects that.... These great works that were given painstakingly through the gift of some benefactor or some individual artist to the Church as an offering to God now [are] available for everyone to see.”

Did this exhibit affect his view of Catholicism? “I’m devoutly Catholic. I’ve ... seen so much of the art of the Vatican Museum. The art’s in the eyes of the giver is the way I look at it. The artwork is not why something is religious or not. To me, any time you see art like this, you recognize how important it was to the giver to do their very best work, to give it as a gift to God. I think it’s spiritually uplifting in that sense. It is magnificent; ... it’s amazing to see what these people [artists] have done.”

For more information on the exhibit, contact the San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park, 619-232-7931, www.sdmart.org.

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