VATICAN - Celebrations for the 500th Anniversary of the Vatican Museums continue with the opening of the first sections of the newly arranged Missionary Ethnological Museum. Collections contain about 100,00 artifacts

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - Closed for five years for restoration work the newly arranged Missionary Ethnological Museum, part of the Vatican Museum complex was officially reopened on 20 June.
Founded on November 12, 1926 by Pope Pius XI and established in the Lateran Papal Palace in 1963 Pope John XXII had it transferred to the Vatican. It is perhaps a little known museum but certainly one of the most interesting of its kind and one of the first which document the different world religions. The collections, comprising about 100,000 artifacts, are testimonials of the cultures and religious practices of the extra-European countries and of their contacts with Christianity. They include artifacts sent to the Vatican from all over the world for the Universal Missionary Exhibition (1925 Holy Year) as well as those of the Borgian Museum of Propaganda Fide and some gifts to the Pontiffs. The arrangement follows a geographical criterion. The collections are divided into four main Sectors (Asia, Oceania, Africa and America) each of which is sub0divided into geo-cultural sections (China, Japan, Korea, Tibet, Mongolia) divided in turn in more sub-sections which introduce the most wide-spread religious practices of single countries. The arrangement of the artifacts documents the different indigenous religions and the influence that Buddhism, Christianity and Islam exerted on local customs.
Fides spoke to the director of the Missionary Ethnological Museum Mgr Roberto Zagnoli who said the museum highlights the diversities among peoples and the missionaries’ intention to safeguard, understand and protect them as values. Referring to ‘Instruction’ on missionary activity which the Congregation de Propaganda Fide sent to bishops and missionaries in Asia in 1657, which states , Mgr. Zagnoli said “today we would call this the method of inculturation: to absorb from cultures all that is ‘genuinely human’ (Proem of the constitution Gaudium et Spes, Vatican II), and make this discovery the basis for dialogue reciprocity: not only giving but also receiving. However it should be noted that inculturation is not syncretism” - said the director of the Missionary Ethnological Museum - “Not withstanding ineluctable historical contradictions what was stated in the document by Propaganda Fide is the line which unites the sense and method of a Church which transmits not an ideology but a message which is for all men and women. This method was the origin of the World Missionary Exhibition opened at the request of Pope Pius XI which the Pope called ”. “Therefore - said Mgr. Zagnoli - the Missionary Ethnological Museum, is by nature didactic and open to knowledge of other cultures and traditions, and is therefore the basis for dialogue between faith and culture which is possible. Today the speed of media communication allows little time for deeper thought and languages are increasingly more affirmative and less analytical”, the director concludes.
Fides also spoke to the general director of the Vatican Museums complex Mr Francesco Buranelli who said, recalling that the reopening of this particular Museum was part of celebrations for the Museums’ 500th anniversary, that the event was purposely brought forward for two important reasons: firstly because the Museum is one of the most representative sectors of the Holy See Collections and secondly because it gives new insight into the interest always shown by the Bishops of Rome for Asian countries, the international relations they established and their desire to make contact with all civilisations and to establish dialogue among cultures and among religions, dialogue which for the Holy See, and especially for the Vatican Museums, has never ceased. Dedicated to China, Japan, Korea, Tibet and Mongolia, this collection of artifacts, of daily, ceremonial and artistic use, from all over the world is an expression of centuries of dialogue among cultures promoted by the Holy See. They speak of the friendships formed between the Popes and members of various religions. These object also bear witness to the care taken by missionaries to safeguard and preserve local traditions and values and the human and brotherly relations they established with the peoples they encountered” Mr Buranelli concludes. (AP) (21/6/2006 Agenzia Fides; Righe:54; Parole:670)