Russian Rights Commissioner Hails Vatican Ties

INTERFAX, Dec. 15 — Increasing relations between Russia and the Vatican are shaping up in the areas of protecting the family, health-care and culture, a spokesman for Oleg Mironov, the Russian human rights commissioner told the Russian news agency.

The Russian Ministry of Labor and Social Development and the Pontifical Council for the Family have been cooperating in protecting the family, women and motherhood, the spokesman pointed out, adding that Russia has received over $15 million worth of humanitarian aid from various charity organizations.

The Vatican also is showing interest in the development of contacts with Russia in healthcare. For example, the children's medical center in Blagotsentr in Moscow was built and equipped at the expense of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers. And Catholic organizations fund the treatment in Italy of children who suffered from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster and orphans from various regions in Russia.

Cultural ties are also expanding. Vatican museums regularly promote exhibits of masterpieces held, in particular, by Russia's Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.

Major Vatican Exhibit to Accompany World Youth Day

THE TORONTO STAR, Dec. 14 — Michelangelo's sketches for the Sistine Chapel and a little-seen Bernini reliquary will be some of the 140 pieces of religious art from the Vatican and other Italian sources to be shown at the Royal Ontario Museum this summer. “Images of Salvation,” an exhibit two years in the making and costing an estimated $1 million to mount, will run from June 8 to Aug. 11 and is timed to coincide with World Youth Day in July.

A significant part of the exhibit will be Jewish religious objects, such as a 15th century Bible.

“I wanted to reach out to the multi-faith, multi-cultural aspect of Toronto, and one particular aspect of that is the Jewish community here,” Father Thomas Rosica, director of World Youth Day, told the Toronto daily. The Jews are “our elder sisters and elder brothers.”

Canadian Ecumenical Leaders Make Pilgrimage to Rome

THE RECORD, Dec. 15 — Bishop Anthony Tonnos of Hamilton, Ontario, led a small ecumenical pilgrimage to the Vatican, engendering hope in his Protestant guests for continued dialogue.

The bishop, who initiated a Lutheran-Anglican-Roman Catholic interfaith committee several years ago, concelebrated Mass with Pope John Paul II in the Pope's private chapel as the Rev. Michael Pryse, bishop of the Kitchener-based Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Rt. Rev. Ralph Spence, bishop of the Anglican Church of Canada's Diocese of Niagara, prayed in the front pew.

As they entered the chapel, the visitors found the Holy Father already on his knees in prayer. For the next 15 minutes, Pryse gave thanks to be alive at a time in history when a Lutheran churchman can pray with the Pope in Rome.

“I think it's a very hopeful sign,” he told the Kitchener-Waterloo daily.

Though the Protestant guests could not receive Communion, they were able to exchange a sign of peace with the Pope during Mass. Pryse clasped the Holy Father's trembling hands and looked into his eyes, which he said were “very alert and very penetrating.”

The interfaith committee will lead their congregations in an annual renewal of Baptismal vows on Jan. 13, the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord.