A Blessing to One Another

 

A Blessing to One Another is unequivocally the most significant project that the Brueggeman Center has been involved with since its inception.

In 2004, Yaffa Eliach, a visiting scholar at the Center, suggested that there was a story about the lifelong relationship between Pope John Paul II (now Saint John Paul II) and the Jewish People; and she suggested creating an exhibit. Dr. William Madges, a theology professor at Xavier, Rabbi Abie Ingber., and Dr. James Buchanan, the Center's director at that time, all agreed with Eliach.

Working with a global team of designers, videographers, and scholars they built a 2,300 square foot, multi-media exhibit entitled: A Blessing to One Another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People. 

The exhibit was visited by more than one million people nationwide. It traveled the United States for more than nine years, through eighteen venues including sites in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. In 2015, the exhibit opened at the Vatican Museum (in Vatican City, Rome) where it was also a great success. 

At the closing ceremony at the Vatican, the Brueggeman Center made a gift of the exhibit to the Saint John Paul II Center and Sanctuary in Krakow, Poland--where it will become part of their permanent exhibit.