Pondering the destruction of the Jewish temple in the pope’s private chapel
An interfaith reflection on dirtiness from within the Vatican’s Pauline Chapel.
The Vatican Museums’ hallways grew packed increasingly with visitors keen to gawk at Michelangelo’s magnificent ceiling as we inched closer to the Sistine Chapel. Our guide, Alessandro Conforti, hopped a velvet rope and knocked on a massive wooden door. Clad in bold regalia, a Swiss guard, in his first months on the job, peered out. The two spoke in Ita…