Blessed John Paul's popemobile put on display at Vatican Museums

(Oct. 17, 2012) The white open-air jeep Blessed John Paul II was riding in when he was shot May 13, 1981, has been taken out of storage and put on display in the Vatican Museums' newly revamped Popemobile Pavilion. The move wasn't meant to sensationalize the tragic event or turn it into a sideshow, but to highlight the car that has become "highly symbolic" of that fateful day and help people "reflect on the value of life and everything John Paul did," said Sandro Barbagallo, an art critic at the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. Barbagallo was the driving force behind restoring and reopening the Museums' permanent exhibit of historic modes of papal transport. The grand opening took place Tuesday, Oct. 16 -- the 34th anniversary of Blessed John Paul's election as pope. The underground exhibit, which houses more than a dozen ornate papal carriages and nine papal cars, had been open only sporadically over the years. Deciding to put the 1980 white Fiat Campagnola on display was the impetus to re-launch the space and keep it open to the public to showcase its other transport treasures of the popes.