Saint's treasure
sparks battle between Naples and Newchurch...
Naples (Italy) (AFP) - Thousands of protesters
demonstrated in Naples on Saturday in a bid to prevent the Catholic Church
gaining any control over the treasure of a local saint that is reputedly worth
more than British crown jewels.
"We're protecting a centuries-old
institution, we will not stand for interference from either the Church or the
government," Paolo Jorio, director of the San Gennaro museum where the
jewels are kept, told AFP.
The protest was sparked by a decree issued by
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano.
Critics say his move opens the door to Church
control as it threatens a lay council that for centuries has guarded the
jewel-encrusted treasures, donated by kings and aristocrats in honour of San
Gennaro.
Over three thousand locals, some wearing T-shirts
with pictures of the saint, tied white handkerchiefs to the gate of the museum
and neighbouring chapel, with many holding signs reading "Don't touch the
treasure".
The lay council was established in the 16th
century as the southern Italian city struggled to overcome a series of
devastating misfortunes: a resurgence of the plague, a siege by the French and
an eruption by the volcano Vesuvius which set off earthquakes.
Those who survived pledged in 1527 to build a
chapel to their patron saint -- known as St Januarius in English -- who was
beheaded in 305 AD during the persecution of Christians by the Emperor
Diocletian.
Not only was the chapel built with the city's
money, it was presided over by the newly-formed council, made up of 12 lay
citizens and the mayor, and came to house one of the world's most important
collections of religious treasures.
- 'Diamonds, rubies, emeralds' -
As well as silver busts of saints, there are
heavily-jewelled necklaces and earrings and a golden mitre, the ceremonial
headdress of bishops, which is studded with 3,326 diamonds, 164 rubies and
nearly 200 emeralds.
Alfano ruled that the council is the same as any
other caretaker body which manages religious buildings - such as Saint Peter's
Basilica in Rome -and ordered that four of the committee's posts should be in
the hands of the Church.
But the council and its supporters say it is much
more than that, particularly because it oversees the Gennaro miracle.
Three times a year a ceremony is held in which
locals pray for miraculous liquefaction of the saint's blood, held in a glass
vial clutched by a priest or cardinal.
If the blood does not return to liquid from its
coagulated state, it is seen as a bad omen for the city -- a harbinger, say the
superstitious, of a disaster, perhaps even the eruption of mighty Vesuvius,
which looms over the city.
A white handkerchief is waved to announce a
miracle.
It is an important tradition, both for devotees
and the Church, but it is the council which safeguards the vial, and the mayor
who invites the Archbishop of Naples into the chapel for the liquefaction
ceremony.
Critics say the Church has tried several times
down the centuries to get control of the vial and treasure.
"We think Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe
(Archbishop of Naples) has applied great pressure on Alfano, in order to extend
his influence over one of the most well-known symbols of popular
religion," Jorio said.
He said the council would appeal the decree in
court and further protests would be held in a bid to get it reversed.
Naples' mayor Luigi De Magistris, head of the
council, said they would do what it takes to "makes sure what San Gennaro
gave us is not diminished!"
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