Sistine Chapel : the legacy of the keys

(Vatican Radio ) Professor of Fine Arts Breda Ennis brings us another of her reflections focusing on the Sistine Chapel.

A Chapel where the frescoes on the central ceiling vault were unveiled five centuries ago in time for the Feast of All Saints. And where there still stands proud an artistic masterpiece famously entrusted to Michelangelo by Pope Julius II.

Professor Ennis choses to relate the Sistine Chapel to a Collection of poems penned by John Paul II in 2003, by the title of 'Roman Tryptich'.

In this programme she speaks of this Chapel in terms of the venue where cardinals gather to elect the Successor of Peter.

As Pope John Paul II's writes:..." The Sistine painting will then speak with the Word of the Lord:
Tu es Petrus—as Simon, the son of Jonah, heard.
'To you I will give the keys of the Kingdom'.
Those to whom the care of the legacy of the keys has been entrusted
gather here, allowing themselves to be enfolded by the Sistine's colours,
by the vision left to us by Michelangelo...
...'Con-clave': a joint concern for the legacy of the keys of the Kingdom.
They will find themselves between the Beginning and the End,
between the Day of Creation and the Day of Judgment."...

A programme produced by Veronica Scarisbrick.

Listen: