Highlights from the cultural world of Rome
The Last Supper, the Eucarist, was initially celebrated in the cool evening, but very soon alternatively in the early morning, in any case never in the heat of midday. Now we understand why. Christianity is a Mediterranean religion, so the warm climate plays a role.
Miraculously (for aesthetic reasons?) there are now two different first day covers of the archaeologist (not the saint of the same name) Giovanni Battista de Rossi (1822-1894) available from Santarossa at the Vatican for €6. Here is the secondary variant: Do you see the difference?
Since this year, all documents of the famous series "Ebrei" are or will be put online. It has been known for a long time that the archives of the Vatican Secretariat of State contain thousands of requests for help that were addressed by Jews to Pope Pius XII during the National Socialist terror and processed by the Curia. To put an end to all speculation and sensationalism, all documents can now be viewed online. The project was realised by Chief Archivist Dr Johan Ickx, a member of the RIGG, who has already presented an important study on these documents: Pio XII e gli Ebrei.
Florian Laurian Tuombe will speak about his doctoral thesis in theology "The relationship between the Old and New Testaments: An approach to Joseph Ratzinger's theology of the liturgy" (supervisor: Fr Juan José Silvestre Valor) on 21 June 2022 at 10 am. Venue: Aula Álvaro del Portillo Piazza di Sant'Apollinare, 49. Tuombe worked for many months in the Ratzinger Study Library of the Campo Santo Teutonico for his dissertation.
The art historian Dr Andreas Raub (* 1989 in Aachen), member and in 2014/15 research associate of the RIGG, has now been appointed museum director of the Roman splendid church of Santa Maria Maggiore (on the Esquiline Hill near Termini Central Station): Direttore del Polo Museale Liberiano.
For some time now, Edith Schaffer and Michèle Smits have been carrying out so-called cemetery actions at Campo Santo Teutonico, during which the participants turn their attention in a historical-spiritual way to personalities who are buried there or whose lives were in some way interwoven with Campo Santo. The next action will take place on Monday, 30 May, at 3 pm.
The Pontifical Institute for Christian Archaeology in Rome (via Napoleone III, 1) opens its doors to interested persons. Participation is possible on site or online. The various study programmes will be presented.
On 30 April, Wolf Biermann and his wife Pamela Rüsche visited the Campo Santo Teutonico cemetery, especially the graves of Ludwig Curtius and Hermine Speier. He gave his book Mensch Gott! with a dedication in mirror writing for the tour. Biermann wrote several poems about the Berlin Huguenot Cemetery, the Montmatre Cemetery and other cemeteries - perhaps also about the Campo Santo Teutonico one day?
On 30 April, the Bavarian Minister of the Interior, Joachim Herrmann, gave the keynote speech at the 36th Foundation Festival of the Catholic Academic Association Capitolina in Rome in the library of the Anima. He made special mention of the Görres Society and its Roman Institute, as his father Johannes Herrmann, a law professor in Erlangen, was Secretary General of the Görres Society during the years from 1967 to 1979. At the same event, Stefan Heid received the Capitolina ribbon of honour from the philistine senior Franco Reale.
An article in Der Spiegel once again draws the public's attention to the threat posed to the German school, the German Archaeological Institute, the German Historical Institute and the Goethe-Institut in Rome by Italy's demands for compensation for crimes committed by the Wehrmacht against civilians at the end of June 1944. Italy had entered the war on the side of Hitler's Germany on 10 June 1940.
Römisches Institut der Görres-Gesellschaft
