St. Peter and the Vatican Exhibition

[Pilgrim42]

Did anyone see this show when it passed through San Antonio? It was fascinating. But I have two questions.

1. They had what was supposed to be JPII’s famous bent pastoral staff with the crucifix on top. That was probably to me the single most moving item. But a friend told me a few days later he saw Benedict XVI on the daily news with the same staff. Do they have multiple copies of this staff, or one real one and several copies?
2. Did anyone get an ironic laugh after walking through 2000 years of Roman Catholic history, only to go into the gift shop and see a stack of PROTESTANT Bibles for sale?

 

[Veritas41]

I saw the exhibit when it was in Houston a couple of years ago and just saw it a few months ago in San Antonio. I would think there is more than one of those staffs. I think I remember reading at the exhibit that JPII was the first one to change the style of the crozier to the bent crucifix.

I didn’t really look through the bookstore to see the Protestant Bibles, but that doesn’t surprise me. When I went to the Houston exhibit, they had posters of the Ten Commandments that were the Protestant version–go figure!

 

[nlh1302]

Concerning the crosier with the crucifix, actually Paul VI was the first to use it - I think John Paul I used it as well - and JPII used the original for a large chunk of his pontificate. Sometime in the 90s a replica was made and JPII used the replica to the end of his life. The replica was at his side when he was lying in state. That one was part of an exhibit in Rome from last October to January, so I don’t know if that was the same one in this exhibition or there was more than one replica. In any case Benedict XVI is currently using the original Paul VI crosier.

As best as I can tell, the difference between the original and replicas seems to be that the original crucifix is a bit larger and more of a darker metal whereas the replica certainly looks like it is silver.