Highlights from the cultural world of Rome
Some popes are at war with animals and consider pets to be a sign of decadence, while they welcome animals on their plates. Leo XIII still hunted birds in the Vatican gardens - for lunch. St Francis called all living creatures his sisters and brothers. In more recent times, Benedict XVI, who famously had a pet cat, followed in this tradition of loving animals.
Every year, the Foundation Meeting Centre Archdiocese of Munich and Freising organises a May devotion accompanied by music and followed by a snack in the garden of the Archdiocese's Casa Santa Maria in Viale delle Medaglie d'Oro in Rome.
In April 2023, the writer and novelist Martin Mosebach gave a public lecture at the RIGG about "his Rome". If you missed it back then, you can listen to a similar lecture by Mosebach in the Tele-Academy (2018):
The international bookshop "La Leoniana" near the Vatican has reopened under the management of Chiara Proietti. It's worth popping in and having a chat with her. The RIGG is planning to enter into a co-operation with the Leoniana. We will inform you about this soon.
by Nikolas Möller
In 312 AD, Constantine defeated his rival Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge. It was probably on this occasion that a seated statue originally depicting Jupiter Optimus Maximus was remodelled for the new autocrat. Fragments of this colossal statue can be seen in the courtyard of the Capitoline Museums.
Prof Dr Andreas Bieringer (Liturgy) and Prof Dr Thomas Meckel (Canon Law) from the Theol. Hochschule Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt a.M. organised an excursion to Rome in March with their students under the theme "City of Grace - City of Law", during which they visited Vatican dicasteries and also listened to art and liturgical history lectures on the important church monuments of the Lateran district (including S. Clemente and Quattro Coronati) and the Esquiline under the guidance of Andreas Raub and Stefan Heid.
lla John Cabot University di Roma si tiene un convegno internazionale su Roma nel Rinascimento. Tra i 27 relatori figurano Jörg Voigt (sui Francescani nel XV secolo) e Andreas Rehberg (sulla Curia romana nel XVI secolo).
The DAI in Rome, reopened in its former splendour on the Via Sardegna not far from the Parco and Villa Borghese, is still offering interesting lectures from April to June.
On 22 March, Sabine Ehrmann-Herfort will hand over the management of the musicology department of the German Historical Institute in Rome to Vera Grund in a ceremony with greetings, a keynote speech and a concert.
This is followed by chats by the Camposantine Paul Maria Baumgarten about the excitement during the conclave, which convened at the beginning of August 1903 after the death of the aged Pope Leo XIII. At that time, the cardinals were literally locked up in the Apostolic Palace.
Römisches Institut der Görres-Gesellschaft
