Pope makes unscheduled stop
to lay flowers at monument to
a judge killed by the Mafia
Translated from
October 3, 2010
During the ride from Palermo to the Falcone-Borsellino airport in Punta Raisi, the Pope asked that the motorcade stop at Capaci, at the point where Judge Giovanni Falcone and his escorts were assassinated in 1995.
He left the car to place a bouquet of flowers on one of the marble steles ercted to commemrorate the victims and offered a prayer for all the victims of the Mafia and other forms of organized crime.
The motorcade then proceeded to the airport and the flight back to Rome.
The Falcone-Borsellino airport is, in fact, named for Judge Falcone and one other judge who was also assassinated by the Mafia.
Salvatore Izzo, in his excellent pre-visit story posted earlier on this page, already referred to Cardinal Ratzinger's previous visit to Palermo in 2000. Here's a bit more detail... Too bad I can't find any photos to go with it.
Faith, words and art:
Joseph Ratzinger's previous
visit to Palermo
Translated from
It was Benedict XVI's first visit to Palermo as Pope. But not his first. When he was the Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger flew to Palermo for a visit that remains in the annals of the city.
It was March 13, 2000 - during the Grand Jubilee Year, no less - and he had been invited by Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi, then Archbishop of Palermo, to inaugurate the 'Week of Faith' in Palermo Cathedral.
The bioethical challenge, inter-religious dialog, the task of Catholic missions, and of course, God-become-man, were the themes that the cardinal spoke about to an audience of 1,500 who well remember his lecture, even if at the time, it was farthest from anyone's mind that the lecturer would be Pope in five years!
His hosts also remember how fascinated he was, looking up enrapt at the magnificent mosaics of the Cathedral in Monreale. He was impressed by the beauty and fidelity to Scripture of the scenes depicted in the mosaics and stunned by Monreale's great Christ-Pantocrator on the dome, just as he was utterly enchanted by the jeweled wonders of the Cappella Palatina in the Palace of the Normans.
It was a taste of Sicily which must surely have stayed in his heart.
I was wondering how I could work in Monreale into this coverage, but this gives me the opening. Forgive the indulgence, but one cannot go to Palermo and not visit Monreale, which is a short trip by public bus outside the city.
Do not be deceived by the exterior. The whole church-monastery complex was first built in the late 12th century and is considered the best amalgam of Norman, Byzantine and Arab architecture from that time. Its Benedictine cloister is arguably the world's most beautiful, best preserved and largest medieval cloister. And yet its exquisite adornment almost pales compared to the 6,600 square meters of mosaic work, representing the most extensive extant cycle of Biblical illustrations, that covers the church interior. (Only Hagia Sophia in Istanbul had a greater mosaic area, but much of it, of course, has been lost.) When one contemplates the mosaics of Ravenna, Santa Maria Maggiore and Monreale, one realizes that mosaic artists are the most under-rated in the visual arts. It is mind-boggling to think how they can manage to put together the thousands of colored glass bits to produce the seamless artistry that they do. I find the the Christ Pantocrator (Almighty) of Monreale as stunning as the Christ in Michelangelo's Last Judgment. (It's as high as a four-story building, to begin with). But, of course, Monreale is more than just its mosaics, as awesome as they are....
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 21/04/2013 02:25]