The exhibition “On the Way to Damascus. The Beginning of a New Life” was inaugurated on Thursday 2nd April in Jerusalem.
The initiative, promoted by the City Council of Brescia and by the Custody of the Holy Land, supported by the Diocesan Museum, Brescia and by the Fondazione Brescia Musei, was sponsored by Brevivet Spa.
Many people from all parts of the city came to the exhibition on its opening day. At the Christian Information Centre, at the Jaffa Gate, in the heart of the old city, more than one hundred people attended the start of an extraordinary event, organized by the Association of the Holy Land, the NGO of the Franciscan Custody.
Religious and political authorities were present at the exhibition. The opening of the event could only been honoured by the words of Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Custos of the Holy Land who, in his address, underlined the important transversal nature of the exhibition because of the large number of “elder brothers” expected to pass in front of the Christian Information Centre in the next few days during the Passover holiday, and because the exhibition will travel to Bethlehem and Nazareth and then reach Damascus, in an Arabic version.
Father Athanasius Macora, Director of the Christian Information Centre, expressed his complete satisfaction for having believed in the organization of the exhibition, hosted and held in the structure, which for some time now has become a compulsory stopping place for all pilgrims coming to Jerusalem. Father G. M. Vigna, the curator of the exhibition, gave a technical introduction to the visit, made up of 44 panels and divided into two sections. The first, which illustrates the places of St. Paul’s life, from Jerusalem, where he took part in the martyrdom of St. Stephen, to Rome, the place of his martyrdom and the second section which focuses on the human experience of Paul, on his new identity and conscience, the result of his meeting with Christ.
The Councillor for Culture of the Brescia Municipality, Andrea Arcai then took the floor: representing the Municipality of Brescia, which promoted the initiative in the Holy Land, he confirmed with pride the hypothesis of holding the exhibition next autumn at Santa Giulia, the Museum of the City of Brescia, birthplace of Pope Paul VI, as a perennial memory of the brotherly relationship which has always united the Holy Land and the population of Brescia.
The last speaker, but certainly not by importance, was Father Frédéric Manns who, with a lively account entitled “St. Paul and women”, maintained that the cliché labelling St. Paul as a misogynist and anti-feminist, should be changed because Lydia, Tecla, Junia, Priscilla and many other women would prove the contrary.
The exhibition and the guidebook, translated into four languages (Italian, English, Arabic and Hebrew) therefore become important tools due to the great cultural value of the project and because they represent the real meaning of the event, inducing an in-depth reflection on the extraordinary nature of the event which an Italian city has promoted and produced as a gift for the Custody of the Holy Land.
DF
The initiative, promoted by the City Council of Brescia and by the Custody of the Holy Land, supported by the Diocesan Museum, Brescia and by the Fondazione Brescia Musei, was sponsored by Brevivet Spa.
Many people from all parts of the city came to the exhibition on its opening day. At the Christian Information Centre, at the Jaffa Gate, in the heart of the old city, more than one hundred people attended the start of an extraordinary event, organized by the Association of the Holy Land, the NGO of the Franciscan Custody.
Religious and political authorities were present at the exhibition. The opening of the event could only been honoured by the words of Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Custos of the Holy Land who, in his address, underlined the important transversal nature of the exhibition because of the large number of “elder brothers” expected to pass in front of the Christian Information Centre in the next few days during the Passover holiday, and because the exhibition will travel to Bethlehem and Nazareth and then reach Damascus, in an Arabic version.
Father Athanasius Macora, Director of the Christian Information Centre, expressed his complete satisfaction for having believed in the organization of the exhibition, hosted and held in the structure, which for some time now has become a compulsory stopping place for all pilgrims coming to Jerusalem. Father G. M. Vigna, the curator of the exhibition, gave a technical introduction to the visit, made up of 44 panels and divided into two sections. The first, which illustrates the places of St. Paul’s life, from Jerusalem, where he took part in the martyrdom of St. Stephen, to Rome, the place of his martyrdom and the second section which focuses on the human experience of Paul, on his new identity and conscience, the result of his meeting with Christ.
The Councillor for Culture of the Brescia Municipality, Andrea Arcai then took the floor: representing the Municipality of Brescia, which promoted the initiative in the Holy Land, he confirmed with pride the hypothesis of holding the exhibition next autumn at Santa Giulia, the Museum of the City of Brescia, birthplace of Pope Paul VI, as a perennial memory of the brotherly relationship which has always united the Holy Land and the population of Brescia.
The last speaker, but certainly not by importance, was Father Frédéric Manns who, with a lively account entitled “St. Paul and women”, maintained that the cliché labelling St. Paul as a misogynist and anti-feminist, should be changed because Lydia, Tecla, Junia, Priscilla and many other women would prove the contrary.
The exhibition and the guidebook, translated into four languages (Italian, English, Arabic and Hebrew) therefore become important tools due to the great cultural value of the project and because they represent the real meaning of the event, inducing an in-depth reflection on the extraordinary nature of the event which an Italian city has promoted and produced as a gift for the Custody of the Holy Land.
DF