Spokesperson for Spanish bishops laments approval of trans law

CNA Staff, Feb 11, 2021 / 04:15 am (CNA).- The world’s largest Gothic altarpiece is once again dazzling visitors to a Catholic basilica in Poland following a six-year restoration project.

Scaffolding was cleared away this month after conservators concluded their work on the wooden altarpiece at St. Mary’s Basilica in Kraków, which features more than 200 sculpted figures.

The Bavarian sculptor Veit Stoss created the vast altarpiece depicting the Dormition and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary between 1477 and 1489.

The basilica announced the completion of the restoration works in a Feb. 1 update on its website. There will be an act of thanksgiving on Aug. 15, the feast of the Assumption.

Msgr. Dariusz Raś, the pastor of St. Mary’s Basilica, said: “This altar is obviously a cultural heritage, but for us believers, above all, it presents the most beautiful moments in Mary’s life, known to us from the Gospel — and not only.” 

“It is also a great work of art related to the late Gothic period, where you can already see elements characteristic of the Renaissance.”

The altarpiece fashioned by Stoss — known in Poland as Wit Stwosz — is classified as a pentaptych. It consists of five parts: a central panel with sculptures, a pair of opening internal wings, and another pair of fixed external wings. When fully opened, it is more than 40 feet high and 35 feet wide.

The central scene shows the Dormition and Assumption of Mary in the presence of the 12 Apostles. Above the central panel, there is a depiction of the coronation of Mary, flanked by St. Stanislaus and St. Adalbert of Prague.

The altar is constructed from three types of wood: oak for the main structure, larch for the background, and linden — a light, soft wood — for the figures.

When the altarpiece is closed, panels showing scenes from the lives of Jesus and Mary are visible.

Raś said that the restoration was completed after six years of “painstaking research and conservation work.”

An expert assessment of the altarpiece in 2011-2012 concluded that it was in a stable condition but at risk of damage. The Inter-Academy Institute of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art made a detailed 3D laser scan in 2013. 

The delicate restoration project began in 2015. During the works, an inscription was discovered on the main group of figures proving that it was completed in 1486, three years earlier than previously thought. 

Workers also found the inscription of a carpenter working at the altar in 1957 during a previous renovation project.

The altarpiece has undergone several restorations in its more than 500-year existence. It has also been caught up in Poland’s turbulent history. 

During the Nazi occupation of Kraków, the altarpiece was taken apart and shipped to Germany. It was discovered in 1946 in the basement of Nuremberg Castle. It was returned to Poland and carefully reassembled at the basilica following major renovation work. 

St. Mary’s Basilica is located in Kraków’s Main Square and is famous for its daily trumpet call, which breaks off abruptly, reputedly in memory of a trumpeter who was shot in the throat while sounding the alarm ahead of an attack on the city.

The basilica is associated with St. John Paul II, who served as a confessor at the church before he was appointed an auxiliary bishop of Kraków.

“We still have a confessional in which Fr. Karol Wojtyła confessed,” said Msgr. Raś. 

“We use it for confession only on holidays. It is carefully respected and marked by us. We call him a silent witness to so many confessions of John Paul II.”

He added: “We invite everyone to St. Mary’s Church as soon as the inconvenience caused by the pandemic is over. It is worth seeing this unique monument in the world.”

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null / Courtesy of Bishop Conley, Archbishop Coakley, and Bishop Wall

Washington D.C., Sep 11, 2022 / 06:38 am (CNA).
When three American bishops from the United States set out this August to walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in northwe… […]

The ancient Portico d’Ottavia in the heart of Rome’s Jewish ghetto was the site of the March for Remembrance on Oct. 16, 2023. / Credit: Camelia.boban|Wikimedia|CC BY-SA 4.0

Rome, Italy, Oct 17, 2023 / 12:37 pm (CNA).

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Rome on Monday evening to mark the 80th anniversary of the Nazi roundup and deportation of more than 1,200 Jews from Rome to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. 

The March of Remembrance commenced at the Piazza del Campidoglio, home to Rome’s city hall, and concluded in front of the ancient Portico d’Ottavia in the heart of the Jewish ghetto. This annual event has been held for the past 30 years and is jointly organized by the Catholic community of Sant’Egidio and the Jewish Community of Rome. 

Established in 1555, the Jewish ghetto of Rome is one of the oldest in Europe. It is located in the city center, bordered by the Tiber River and the Trastevere neighborhood on the south and Piazza Venezia on the north. 

On Sept. 10, 1943, two days after Italy’s surrender, the German Wehrmacht occupied Rome. The city remained under Nazi control until its liberation by Allied forces a year later, on June 4, 1944. 

On Oct. 16, 1943, the Gestapo raided the ghetto, rounding up 1,022 Jews who were subsequently deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. 

“Two hundred were children. Sixteen of them returned, only one woman among them,” Rome’s chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, told the crowd at the event’s concluding ceremony.

Among the speakers on the stage were the president of Italy, Sergio Mattarella; the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri; Di Segni; Victor Fadlun, president of the Jewish Community of Rome organization; Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio; representatives of the Italian Parliament; and members of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s cabinet. 

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference; Bishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life; and Ambrogio Spreafico, bishop of Anagni-Alatri, were also present. 

This was an opportunity to remember “one of the most shocking and inhuman events that our city experienced in the 20th century,” Gualtieri said in his remarks. 

“It is necessary to always recognize and fight the virus of anti-Semitism when it appears in its multiple metamorphoses,” he continued. “This is also why it is important to be here today.” 

The mayor also took a moment to honor two survivors of the Holocaust, Tatiana Bucci and Sami Modiano, 85 and 92 years old, respectively, who were present at the event.

“The novelty of the Shoah [the Holocaust] was that of the systematic and technological organization of the extermination,” Di Segni told the crowd assembled in front of the Portico d’Ottavia. “But the massacres of the Jews had infamous precedents throughout the world,” he continued. 

“After the Shoah, we had the illusion that the world had changed. But no,” he said.

At the end of his speech, Di Segni took a moment to comment on Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7. 

“What happened nine days ago in Israel … reopened the bleeding wounds of events that occurred in this square and spread a sense of insecurity throughout the world. I am not going to insist on the essential message, which should also be clear, that the attack on the Jews as such because that is what it was, is an attack on the foundations of civil society and social peace.” 

Riccardi of Sant’Egidio, an organization known for its far-reaching humanitarian work, made the event’s closing remarks.

“War and violence and terrorism are being reevaluated,” Riccardi declared. 

“And so, dear friends, in this climate between the memory of ’43 and the horror of the massacres and kidnappings of the innocent caused by the barbaric attack of Hamas on the whole of Israel, sharing the anxiety for the future of our friends, we rally around the Jewish community with great effect and with faithfulness,” he said.

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