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                               VIS-Press releases

PRESENTATION OF THE MISSIONARY MUSEUM OF PROPAGANDA FIDE

VATICAN CITY, 9 DEC 2010 (VIS) - This morning at the Rome headquarters of the
Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, a press conference was held to
present the new Missionary Museum of Propaganda Fide.

The conference was presented by Fr. Massimo Cenci P.I.M.E., under secretary of
the congregation; Francesco Buranelli, co-ordinator of the missionary museum's
academic committee, and Ludovico Ortona, president of the Italian "Societa per
lo sviluppo dell'arte, della cultura e dello spettacolo" (ARCUS).

Fr. Cenci explained how the new institution, located in the Roman palazzo which
has been the headquarters of the congregation for nearly four centuries, "is a
complete museum, which not only has artistic value but which was conceived and
created also and above all with a view to its specifically pastoral function".

Francesco Buranelli recalled the fact that "it was Pope Gregory XV (Alessandro
Ludovisi 1621-1623) who, with his 'Inscrutabili Divinae', founded the Holy
Congregation 'de Propaganda Fide' ... to promote and co-ordinate all
evangelising activity in non-Christian lands".

Buranelli then reviewed the contents of the museum, referring first to the
Chapel of the Magi, originally an elliptical construction by Gian Lorenzo
Bernini. "It was Cardinal Antonio Barberini who chose to dedicate the church to
the Baby Jesus, adored by the Magi", he said. "The Magi
symbolically represent
the kings of the pagan peoples who, guided by the star, were the first to go
out to meet Christ and thus to gain the faith. The theme of the Epiphany is,
then, extremely appropriate for a chapel intended to welcome the students of
Propaganda Fide, who were destined to go out and transmit the good news". With
the advent of Pope Innocent X (Giovanni Battista Pamphilj) the work was
entrusted to Borromini under whose direction Bernini's church was demolished
and the Chapel of the Magi rebuilt between 1662 and 1664.

The co-ordinator of the academic committee explained how the first hall of the
museum contains a video presentation on the congregation's origins, history and
missionary activity. This is followed by a multimedia room in which visitors
can consult the "Agenzia Fides" archive of more than ten thousand
photographs,
showing voyages in mission lands since the beginning of the twentieth century.

The museum route also comprehends the Barberini Library "which has been
completely restored for the occasion". The structure has a coffered wooden
ceiling and a gallery with "portraits of certain illustrious students of the
College".

Finally, "there is the Newman Chapel", Buranelli explained. Following his
conversion to Catholicism, Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman "lived and
studied in the College of Propaganda Fide, and there celebrated his first
Mass".

For his part, Ludovico Ortona noted that this new project "gives the public a
chance to see works which up to now were not available to them. Thus it enables
not only the conservation, recovery and restoration of our artistic and
cultural heritage, but also opens the way to new possibilities, making
available all the hidden masterpieces ... which are a measure of the greatness
of Italian cultural and artistic history".
OP/VIS 20101209 (520)

SUMMARY

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