The theme of a free visit to the Vatican’s artistic heritage, organized for young people, with the Vatican Museums, by the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, on Thursday, May 17, 2018, is “Education and Beauty against Corruption,” stated a press release of the Dicastery. A visit that took place in the framework of the initiative “Dignity and Beauty.”
Some fifty students — of the Attilio Romano Higher Institute of Scampia, Seconigliano and Miano (Napels), and of the Hurtado Center of Scampia — were accompanied by members of the Dicastery, which is presided over by Cardinal Peter Turkson, organizer of the event, and the Museums, directed by Barbara Jatta. The young people <discovered> the artistic heritage displayed between the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel.
The initiative is inserted in a path the Dicastery began in June 2017, when — in the framework of an international debate organized by the Vatican –, the Consultation was born for Justice against Corruption and the Mafias. It was followed in February 2018 by a moment of reflection at the Romano Institute, during which the books “Corrosion,” by Cardinal Turkson, and “Dirty Bread,” by Vittorio Alberti, official of the Dicastery and expert in politics and legality, were presented.
In the Preface of “Corrosion,” Pope Francis writes that “corruption expresses the general form of the disordered life of the man on the street [. . .} and reveals antisocial behavior.” Corruption germinates in man’s heart” and prospers “if one doesn’t remove it from oneself and if one’s thought and heart don’t explore a wider horizon,” he notes.
The next meetings of the “Dignity and Beauty” initiative will be held at Teano on June 1 — during a Conference in which representatives of the Italian Episcopal Conference and the local Church, as well as of the Libera Association, will take part, in addition to the Dicastery –, and at Monreale (Sicily) on June 22.
