Vatican’s Ecumenical Altarpiece: Syncretism Masquerading as Sacred Art
VaticanNews portal reports the installation of German artist Michael Triegel’s altarpiece in the Church of the Teutonic Cemetery, featuring a homeless Lutheran man (“Scheffler”) depicted as St. Peter and buried in the adjacent cemetery. The work incorporates fragments from Lucas Cranach’s unfinished Reformation-era painting and includes Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer among saints. Framed as an “ecumenical dialogue,” the display lasts two years under collaboration between the Evangelical Cathedral Chapter of Naumburg and the Vatican’s German Archconfraternity. The article celebrates this as a “profound providence,” noting antipope Benedict XVI’s blessing of the project.









