Year For Priests: 2009-2010

Dead Sea Scrolls Event, May 12, 2010

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Ninety-two active and retired priests from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis were guests at the "Year For Priests Dead Sea Scrolls Event" on May 12 at the Science Museum of Minnesota. The evening was sponsored by Fr. Lucien Galtier Council 4184 of the Knights of Columbus, West St. Paul, Minnesota, and organized by Deputy Grand Knight George Sonnen. Generous funding came from the Catholic Aid Association, the Archdiocesan Catholic Community Foundation, as well as private donors and members of Council 4184.

The evening began with a social hour and dinner. Guest speaker Joe Imholte, Director of Special Exhibits for the Science Museum of Minnesota, gave a slideshow presentation. Joe was the key person responsible for bringing the exhibit to the museum and did all of the negotiations with the Israelis.

Next, the priests viewed the Omnitheatre movie "Arabia" – an excellent background movie about the Middle East and the factors that led to the rise and decline of Arabia's "golden ages."

The priests then toured the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. Containing original texts from the Bible as well as writings that tell us about the laws and society of Jewish culture, the scrolls were discovered in a cave along the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in 1947. Since then, they have prompted rigorous scholarly debate as to who their authors may have been, and have given us a rare glimpse into what life was like around the time of Christ. Go to www.smm.org/scrolls for details of the exhibit which continues through October 24, 2010.

Gratitude was expressed by the priests for the excellent evening. One priest commented how surprised he was to see the clarity of the calligraphy on the 2000-year-old Dead Sea scrolls which were written on goat and deer skins. Another priest, when asked what he learned, said he was happy to know more about the The Saint John's Bible, on display in the final gallery. A work of art that illuminates the world today, it's the first complete, handwritten and illuminated Bible to be commissioned in 500 years. More at www.smm.org/scrolls/saintjohnsbible.