Luce da Luce: la mostra itinerante del Meeting di Rimini in occasione dei 1700 anni dal Concilio di Nicea – ROR

Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, November 7-13 2025

On 6 November, the Rimini Meeting Itinerant Exhibition, “Light from Light, Nicaea 1700 years later”, was inaugurated in the Aula Benedetto XVI at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, where it was subsequently displayed from 7–13 November. Ilaria Vigorelli (PUSC), Giulio Maspero (PUSC), and Paolo Prosperi (PUSC) spoke to present the exhibition and subsequently guide attendees through the display panels, with the kind participation of Gian Guido Vecchi (Vatican correspondent, Corriere della Sera).

The ROR, on behalf of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, together with the association “Patres,” conceived and presented the exhibition “Light from Light” at the invitation of the President of the Meeting di Rimini, in order to welcome the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, during the 46th edition in August. The exhibition was also presented in the Vatican, at the Dicastery for Communication, with a press conference intended to support the preparation of journalists ahead of the Pope’s journey to Turkey and Lebanon.

The itinerant exhibition aims to offer its visitors an immersive experience into the history of Nicaea and the Trinitarian mystery through texts, images, works of art, and multimedia tools. The space, that hosted it for the first time in Rimini, evoked the structure of a basilica: this was done not only with the intent of recalling the location where the Council took place 1700 years ago but, above all, with the desire to affirm that: “the space of faith is neither alien to the world nor separated from it”. This is written by Giulio Maspero in the exhibition catalogue, published by Ares (Light from Light. Nicaea 1700 years later).

At the Meeting, there were 250 guided tours and over 10,000 attendees registered according to the testimonials of the volunteers who guided the visitor groups: the itinerary, they explain, ultimately becomes an opportunity for personal conversion; the point is not to exhaustively transmit all concepts but to allow a powerful message, greater than ourselves, to dwell in us and be proclaimed by us, even while infinitely transcending us. This is an experience that communicates to our existence what is truly fundamental for humanity. «God is Father; He does not act as a father» Giulio Maspero and Ilaria Vigorelli explained during the press conference in the Vatican: «precisely because Jesus is the eternal Son». Jesus is not a son created by the Father like creatures and for the sake of creatures; the existence of the Son is not functional to anything else but belongs essentially to the eternal identity of the Father, just as the Father is the foundation of the Son’s eternal identity. This has a liberating and emancipating impact on our lives, especially concerning the common sense of inadequacy that causes suffering and drives contemporary humanity to oppose others, even leading to war. The exhibition aimed to regenerate this “lost” reference point. We are all subjects of a performance-driven logic; we are orphans of the “Father”; we have forgotten that God is Father and, as Father, He only knows how to generate and welcome.

“Light from light, true God from true God”, the confession appearing in the Nicene Creed is, fundamentally, a dogmatic formula that translates what is narrated in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Upon returning, the son discovers that the Father never stopped loving and waiting for him. Our human place, Rowan Williams reflects in the postscript to the exhibition catalogue, is the place next to the Father’s heart. To believe in the divinity of the Word means believing that humanity derives its dignity from the filial dignity of the Word and reflects its beauty through proximity to the Father, in love and the most authoritative freedom.

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