The Vatican Secret Archives Unveiled

[Valin]

National Review:

Prompting some thoughts about historical amnesia and cultural suicide.

George Weigel

6/27/12

 

Rome — The very name “Vatican Secret Archives” tends to trigger the Dan Brown reflex in minds given to conspiracy theories and black legends about the Catholic Church. In fact, there is nothing sinister about the title of this treasure trove of historical materials; “secret,” in this case, is Vaticanspeak for the private archives of the papacy, which were opened to qualified scholars in 1881 by Leo XIII, the founder of the modern papacy and a man unafraid of the truths that history could teach.

 

To mark the 400th anniversary of the founding of this remarkable institution, the Vatican and the City of Rome have assembled an extraordinary exhibit of materials from the Secret Archives, Lux in Arcana (“Light in Mysterious Places”), which can be enjoyed at the Capitoline Museum in the Piazza del Campidoglio until September 9, and sampled online at luxinarcana.org. If good fortune brings you to La Città before September 9, reserve at least three hours to savor an assemblage of primary historical materials of a magnitude never before exhibited in one place, and unlikely to be shown again in the foreseeable future.

 

(Snip)

 

Thus I might suggest that those who refused, in the preamble to the constitutional treaty that governs today’s European Union, to concede Christianity any role in forming contemporary Europe’s democratic commitments pay a visit to Rome and have a close look at Lux in Arcana. There they will find, openly displayed, the work of the Catholic Church in preserving documents decisive for the cultural and historical memory of the West — documents that have, over time, compelled the Church to examine its own conscience and develop its own social doctrine to the point where the Catholic Church now has a richer concept of democracy than most European political theorists.

 

(Snip)

 

 

 

[logicnreason]

One wonders if the Vatican replaced all the damaged shelving (not to mention the priceless books and manuscripts) and the glass wall that got destroyed when the oxygen ran out??

 

YIKES!