Returning Temple Vessels From Italy?
Recently, shortly after the Jewish High Holidays, a compelling article was written here on Israel365news about a leading Italian member of parliament who had a Zoom meeting with Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu. The Italian MP stated that Italy is in fact prepared to return the lost Temple vessels to Israel and that the time is now to do so. The reaction here in Israel has been overwhelming. Could this be true? The article went on to go viral across many faith-based Jewish and Christian communities.
Since then, I have received tens, if not dozens of emails, chats, WhatsApps, and SMSs in the past three weeks regarding the above-mentioned article. Including today, from all around the world, including news outlets. They all have the same question: Is this real or fake news? I have been asked, and now feel obligated to respond on these same pages.
The answer is that there’s a little of both, i.e., some genuine news, and some fake news. In my capacity as Director of the Museum Exchange Program, Jewish Heritage Project (located at the Vatican in Rome), on the one hand, I’m flattered by so many reaching out, but on the other hand, I have to answer by shedding light on some difficult truths. I have been in this fledgling position for approximately 2 years now, going back and forth to Rome and meeting with many of the Vatican Directors personally, including those in charge of the excavations underneath St. Peter’s Basilica, the Chief Prefect at the Dicastery for External Communications, the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue (Catholic-Jewish relations), and Museum Directors – both past and present. Not to mention all the appropriate and necessary Israeli Ambassadors silently involved. I have found that almost all of these officials are in agreement, at least in theory, of temporarily displaying ancient Jewish antiquities.
Having said that, we must first understand that the Vatican Church and the government of Italy are two very distinct entities. Very distinct. There is no more profound example of the separation between Church and State than this. Also take into consideration that Italy is a country of roughly 60 million citizens, while the Vatican has a religious constituency of over 1 billion Catholics! Furthermore, the Vatican Church has a power structure dating back over 1000 years past the 14th Century when the Pope had moved their official residence to the Vatican, whereas Italy became independent very recently by comparison. It had been ruled by the Monarchy all the way up to 1947 through the late King Victor Emmanuel III. Should I add that the Vatican enjoys complete diplomatic immunity, while Italy is subject to international laws and conventions?
The bottom line here is that Pope Francis, along with the Secretariat of State, His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Governor Archbishop Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, and the Museum Director, Dr. Barbara Jatta are the main decision-makers on this case. The Italian government can exert a limited amount of pressure by way of the press, but that’s about it.
The good news in this scenario is that the official Vatican position currently is that they neither confirm nor deny possessing any Herodian Temple objects like the golden Menorah, sacred tables, altars, priestly garments, and the like. This was said to me when I first attended the Apostolic Delegation of the Holy See where I was granted an exclusive interview with the Papal Nuncio, His Excellency Archbishop Illana at his residence on the Mount of Olives. What he said is no doubt a step in the right direction because up until very recently and for centuries, it was simply a given that the Vatican Church denies possessing any of these items. Another development worth mentioning is that incidents have been reported that concern high-ranking Vatican officials who were willing to reveal the location of these holy vessels to religious Jews before going on pension or resigning from their posts. Not just one or two, these encounters are apparently taking place in Rome, and even Paris.
Secondly, I was in touch with the offices of the Italian MP (who would prefer to remain anonymous). What was written in the article indeed is the opinion of this particular Italian politician; however, he isn’t the first to state that Rome has possession of Jerusalem’s Temple vessels and would like to see them returning, ultimately, to Israel. He also said that they are in their cellars and that nothing is being done with them now at any rate. Of course, he doesn’t have concrete, academic proof of this, but it is something he believes and wants. According to Italian party platforms, the true recipients of the Temple treasures in the meantime are the 7th generation Jews that have lived there in Rome dating back to the Spanish Inquisition. In other words, if the Italian government and press were to apply pressure on the various Vatican officials mentioned above (which I am personally pushing for), the group to benefit most would be the Roman Jews, their constituents, as the feeling is that it’s their privilege, in fact, their right of heritage, as it were, in that place.
In the inner chambers where the highest Cardinals occasionally meet, the concept of restitution and/or repatriation to Israel isn’t even in the realm of discussion, and in fact, constitutes a potentially major theological problem for Catholicism in general, and the Vatican Church in particular. Putting it bluntly, replacement theology is taking a hard hit here. It’s for this reason that the proposal that I was asked to submit for filming these items and then facilitating an exhibit is actually quite limited to one of the Vatican Museums in Rome only, even if it were for a symbolic gesture of solidarity with Israel vis-à-vis the war effort, etc.
That leads to our third point. Pope Francis can make his sentiment known by lending his support to the concept of a Jewish museum exhibition. In his public address, the Pontiff recently acknowledged that “it is the right of those who are attacked to defend themselves” and has issued guidelines to Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and one of Pope Francis’s new crop of cardinals, for dealing with the conflict. I’m assuming that one of those guidelines is the categorical reprehension and denouncement of all the pro-Hamas rallies and riots, which promote the annihilation of a whole people, not only in Israel proper but wherever they may be. Just the other day, the Israeli flag was torn down by an angry Arab mob at the UN building in Rome.
Truth be told, Pizzaballa has a Catholic community in Israel, in the Palestinian Territories, and other places where there are tens of thousands of Christian Arabs but they are not necessarily all of the same opinion. This matters because one of the behind-the-scenes concerns of the Vatican lies with ascertaining how this large and vocal group will react to taking out any Jewish items of antiquity for display, what the political fallout will be, etc. Will Christian Arabs in the Middle East have feelings of pride for the Pope, similar to when he donated the ancient Parthenon fragments back to Greece, or will it be turned into a political discussion of who the holy items really belong to, i.e. who were the real indigenous people of Israel 2000 years ago, Palestinians or Jews? As I wrote in a separate article over a year ago on the subject, nothing surprises me anymore.
In conclusion, as a disclaimer, there are those academics who would claim that it is practically impossible that anything could remain from the Temple in Jerusalem. However, be that as it may, there lies a more realistic and practical way of making this Italian politician’s good intentions come true. Based on my work with this project, I’m pleased to say that what we do have now is scientific proof in the form of original Epistles and correspondence letters written in Latin, of sacred Byzantine-era antiquities, Jewish and Christian religious items from Syria and Constantinople, that were sent by the Latin Emperor Baldwin I to Pope Innocent III in Rome during April and May of the year 1204. This hoard of gifts reveals the Jewish origins of Christianity and therefore has tremendous spiritual and historical value. If you’re looking for something that really is real, and is also located in the Vatican Museums, this would be the ticket! Most experts agree with me that because these are rare Imperial gifts, ‘Baldwin’s Treasure’ today is most likely to be found as part of the Vatican’s Treasury of St. Peter’s Collection, or Pope Francis’ personal Papal Heritage Collection.
In these difficult times, I am confident that the Jewish Heritage Project with the Vatican Museum will continue to bear fruit, and we will have some good news in the form of a major event announcement coming soon. Bringing these items out of their preservation and restoring them back into the light after over 1000 years might be one of the important steps that is needed to open the door, moving this MP’s dream forward, along with so many of our own…
Harry (Hirschel) Moskoff is the Director of the Museum Exchange – Jewish Heritage Project in Rome, a journalist, and President of Moskoff-Media (Israel), MMLC. He is also a member of the White House Press pool, and ICCROM. He can be reached at: office@harryhmoskoff.net
The post Returning Temple Vessels From Italy? appeared first on Israel365 News.
Israel in the News
