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Secret Vatican documents revealed as exhibition opens

Over a millennium's worth of historical documents to be displayed


St Peter's Basilica, The Vatican, Rome
St Peter's Basilica, The Vatican, Rome
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100 documents which played a vital role in the history of the Catholic Church will finally be put on display after being very closely guarded, some for centuries. The documents, which have been kept at the Vatican’s Secret Archives, will be put out for exhibition between February and September of 2012.

The Irish Independent reports that the historical documents were gathered by archivists in order to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Secret Archives in their present form. The documents will be on display at Rome's Capitoline Museums.
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Correspondence with such important historical figures as Galileo, Martin Luther, and Henry VIII will be included in the exhibition.

"It's an exceptional event," said the Vatican's spokesman Father Federico Lombardi. "Never have so many documents from the Secret Archive been allowed to leave the Vatican."

The documents, until now, have been kept “on 50 miles of shelves in climate-controlled rooms in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace as well as in a high-security underground bunker,” said The Independent.

The exhibition, entitled 'Lux in Arcana: The Vatican Secret Archives Revealed', will also feature first-hand documents from other figures including Mary Queen of Scots just weeks before her execution, an appeal from Parliament seeking to annul Henry VIII’s marriage (whose denial later led to the schism and formation of the Church of England), and Pope Pius XII, who was widely criticized for not acting enough during the years of the Holocaust.


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**No one is in any position to claim that only a small number of religious engaged in sexual abuse of children** But come one,come all.. anyone who wants to blanket-blame the entire priesthood of the CC of being pedophiles, of cover-up, abuse, corruption, etc. is happily allowed here at IC, and the eeriemuck will be in charge of unrolling the red carpet. That is only if the rainbow-colored one she walks on is not available.
I seem to have touched a nerve which ever way my comment was taken, no doubt the male connection of "castration". Oh those family jewels, stay with the shepherds jacer, they'll take care of you And them.
Tuigim too, ColletteTwo. Your “statement” was in fact a disguised question which I, and I’m sure many others, understood it for what it was, loaded with its complete ignorance. I suppose every African woman who has been castrated now has a gravelly voice, by your silly reasoning, not an iota of which has anything to do with an exhibition in Rome next year. Keep to the subject, woman. D’ya capiche that? Oh no, you can’t... ‘cos you’re a capichee frenchie wenchie woman. *Mwaaahaha*. Seriously, though, do people think that the Vatican Archives will reveal a PC (that means “political correction”) from donkeys years ago? ... that the word ‘woman’ should really be spelled/read as woe-man? Whaaaat on Eaaarrrth (!) would our RCC medieval Pope Joan think today if she was alive? Will that secret be exposed in the exhibition? Will it?? No, I don’t think so...The word ‘woman’ should really be spelled “woe2man”, like Collette disfigured-ly uses.
I wasn't asking a question jacer.. I was making a statement, castrato's always have beautiful voices, it's probably the castration effect that bother's you. Capiche?
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@ CitizenWhy - point taken. You've not taken my point. The exhibition next year is much ado about nothing. Question: when are you going to reveal your "Arkana"? For your edgeumadgacation, there are so many "secrets" that the RCC, Greek, Armenian and Russian Orthodox Christian Churches know that they won't reveal them for fear of shocking people to death. Like the fact that a fella born in human form was actually an Incarnation of God. Present in every Holy Eucharist around the world, present in every Tabernacle, even one close to you. That’s a whoohking lot to take in but it happened. I know you’re good Citizen, may His Peace be with you and me. Try finding out why, my fellow citizen, why the majority of statistically recorded miracles that happened in Lourdes happened - not during peoples’ bathing in the miraculous watering stream that Bernadette dug - but during the procession of the Holy Eucharist amongst the pilgrims. Now, CitizenWhy – go and find out and don’t bother me or anyone else with false questionings. There is much to do, there are many bashers, and few to answer the call of the power of the Holy Eucharist, which we Christians celebrate this time of year. The Peace of Christ’s birth be with you and yours this time of year.
Collette2 - why do you ask such a stupid question? If I was interviewing you for a job and, at the end of the interview, asked you if there were any questions you'd like to ask, you'd fail on that kind of ignoramuounsity.
Consideing the climate then and now, they should have casterated all "celebates," then there would be no ineritance isues or pedophiles. imagine the choir's.
@stephen1553 ... Land inheritance was a huge issue in feudal and imperial Roman Times. The western church, lacking an emperor, was endangered by its own priests taking church land to leave to their children. The ban made marriage by priests an irregularity, not a sin, and the children officially bastards with no inheritance right (the main purpose of the ban). Most priests continued to marry. In fact Cardinal Wolseley was chastely married (no promiscuity), in contrast to the many promiscuous popes, and all but two of the Catholic bishops of England were married when Henry broke with Rome, their marriages making them reluctant to speak up for Rome. The other two, unmarried, spoke up for Rome and were executed. In the more organized Byzantine Empire the alienation of imperial property was a danger from generals and bishops. The generals were castrated and the bishops, unlike priests, had to be celibate and hence were mainly chosen from among the ranks of monks. The promoters of the imperial court like to comment that the emperor's court symbolized the heavenly court, with the emperor, God's vicar on earth, surrounded by angelic men (eunuchs). The title of God's vicar for the emperor and the Merovingian kings in France was totally accepted by the church. With the extermination of the Merovingians that title fell to the pope. Church history is complex, a history of complex conflicts and flawed human beings.
@jacersagain ... Arcana means secrets, and that was the name given by the Vatican to that archive. Arcana implies/means secrets open only to a chosen few. Secret in that sense.
It is wrong to call the documents “secret”. They have been available to scholars throughout history and much of what they contain has been in the public domain in some form or another in published works of those scholars. The only significant thing about this event is that the Archived documents are going on public display. They won’t mean a thing to us people of the public ‘cos we would not be able to understand what’s written on them due to the age of the language and writings in them. It’s all a bit of a “Much Ado about Nothing” really. I won’t be rushing to Rome to see them.
stephen1553 shows all the characteristics of an ignorant Catholic Church basher. Ok; so we can therefore assume that he has nothing to do with the RCC or doesn’t want to anymore. That’s Ok too if he choses. Then I would say that he should get his nose out of RCC church affairs - on the pages of ICentral or anywhere for that matter, okay? Church affairs are none of your business anymore and certaily your comments have to do with the Vatican placing some of its archival stuff on public display. Push off with yourself now, keep your hatred to yourself, get lost and stay a lost lamb until the Good Shepherd calls you to come to your senses.
No one is in any position to claim that only a small number of religious engaged in sexual abuse of children. The bishops did such a splendid job of withholding information from civil authorities, of covering up and destroying evidence, and of silencing victims and their families that we will never have any realistic estimate of the number of priest-abusers or of their victims. As a result, "proved" cases are few while allegations have been many. So let's have no more hypocritical claims like those below about few "proved" crimes when churchmen put herculean efforts into covering up criminality. The known cases that have been published in Irish and American reports should be enough to stun everyone into silence on the fretted question "how many?" "Decades' worth of revelations" is our only answer. Any comparison with sexual abuse cases outside the Church is both patently irrelevant and self-serving on the part of those who oppose mandatory reporting laws and who fight extension of statutes of limitations on sexual abuse cases. Also, this pope has done NOTHING "to expedite" civil cases against abusers. He has amended canon law to clarify how the Church deals with abusers, while he himself has only grudgingly *allowed* priests and bishops to obey existing *civil* laws. SNAP aptly termed the changes to canon law "tweaking" where complete reform was clearly needed. It's reasonable to conclude that compliance with criminal law can only be imposed on churchmen by the secular courts; it has not and will not come from the Church itself. "Ecclesia semper reformandum"? Only if citizens coerce it to reform-- willingness to coerce is the reform most needed!
Even though any institution will selectively choose what to unveil, it is still welcome. Regarding previous posts, it is the harbouring and abetting of the guilty that is unforgiveable; all institutions tend towards corruption over time and become self serving. The institution becomes more important than the reason it was formed.




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