Visitors to the San Diego Museum of Art are agreeably thrust back in time with its multi-media presentation, "Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes." This is the largest collection of the Vatican's artifacts, documents, and works of art - nearly 400 of them - ever to tour North America.

Touring with fellow parishioners through recreated environments tracing the evolution of the church and its papacy, we wound through recreations of dank avenues in the first century necropolis on Vatican Hill; touched paint buckets sitting on Michelangelo's creaking scaffolding from the 1500s; watched a film of the death of Pope Pius XI followed by the election of Pius XII in 1939; and strolled through the Holy Door opened by John Paul II for the Jubilee year 2000. But don't get the wrong idea. The presentation is less a kind of Catholic Disneyland and more like browsing through the pope's attic.

Visitorswill discover letters in Arabic, Korean, Japanese and other languages demonstrating the Church's missionary zeal. They can see the actual giant chalice with paten into which cardinals deposit their ballots during papal elections. In contrast to a glorious mosaic head of St. Peter from the fourth century and a breathtaking angel created by Giotto, a dull tin paten cut from the bottom of a can and a cheap glass goblet used for hurried Masses in a Nazi concentration camp powerfully testify to the heroism of martyrs in all ages.

The display contains a cut-away reconstruction of Constantine's stupendous basilica and explains how Pope St. Gregory the Great raised the floor under the altar to make room for the "confessio" in which the tombs of many popes are found. In a sketch by Bernini, St. Peter's arms become the colonnade the artist built, while Michelangelo laments in a letter to his brother that Julius II has not yet paid him.

Here are found items no longer used at papal Masses. The "pax," a wax or metal plate kissed by the pope at the Rite of Peace; the golden tube through which popes sipped the Precious Blood; and buskins - ornate stockings worn by bishops before donning even more ornate pontifical slippers.

Sightseers also can examine closeup the sedia gestoria, forerunner of the Popemobile, and the elegant flabellae, tall fans made of ostrich feathers. These were used until the 1960s and always lent an exotic touch to pontifical processions.

Almost overlooked was the little hammer used by the "cardinal camerlengo" (the Dean of the College of Cardinals) who taps it against the forehead of the pope to be sure of his demise. My friend Barbara Sumner gently suggested that, if the pope wasn't dead, the hammer would certainly finish him off.

A small grill on a shaft from the pope's coronation procession, last used in 1959, caught my attention. A cowled monk burned hemp or flax on it. As it quickly flared up amidst the surrounding splendor, the monk famously chanted, "Sic transit gloria mundi!" -- "Thus passes the glory of the world!"

The display demonstrates changing tastes in papal vestments. DeForeest, my nearly 15-year-old son, was impressed by everything except Urban VIII's baroque, Florentine-styled dalmatic and fiddle-front chasuble with their fussy floral motif. "They look like somebody cut up a table cloth," was his considered assessment.

Be warned! There are just enough minor errors of commission and omission in the headset commentary and explanatory display cards to be annoying. For instance, architecturally, the word "ciborium" refers to a structure, either vaulted or domed, supported by four columns, built over a high altar. Here, however, we are told the ciborium is the high altar itself.

In the display of papal seals, there is no mention of the fact that, when a pope dies, the cardinal camerlengo defaces the seal, to prevent its future use. Yet no explanation is given for the scratches and gouges seen on the various seals, most noticeable on that of Pius X.

The shepherd's crook or crosier denotes a bishop's limited jurisdiction. Despite the display's insistence that popes employed crosiers until the time of Paul VI, their use ended in the 1000s. A plain equilateral, cross on a staff was substituted. The pastoral staff topped by a silver crucifix made for Pope Paul VI by the artist Lello Scorzelli seen here replaced this. Enfeebled by age John Paul II now uses a lighter-weight copy.

And there are the tiaras! Ornate and bejeweled, they remind us of when the Pope was crowned: "… Father of princes and kings, Ruler of the World, Vicar on earth of our Savior Jesus Christ…" As if to disprove that formula, the tiara given Pius VII by Napoleon - including jewels stolen during the French invasion of Rome - was deliberately made too small to fit him.

For me, the most remarkable exhibit was the recreation of Peter's grave, mentioned by a priest of Rome named Caius, circa 200: "…if you will go to the Vatican or to the Ostian Way you will find the trophies of those who laid the foundations of this church." His note is valuable evidence of the death of Sts. Peter and Paul at Rome, and the public veneration of their remains.

The "trophy" or grave marker of Peter's tomb took shape as a large rectangular marble "shelf" supported by two columns, set against a red plaster wall. Behind the wall was what Peter, a Palestinian Jew, would call a "mikvah", a place for ritual bathing. In other words, a baptistery. During persecutions, the shelf, a disguised altar, was where the bishop of Rome celebrated Mass, his back to the people, directly above Peter's tomb.

This gigantic collection is spread over 15,000 square feet, drawn from the extensive collections of the Vatican Museums, the archives of the Propagation of the Faith, the Pontifical Sacristy, and the Casa Buonarroti in Florence where relics of Michelangelo's life and work repose.

By all means, don't miss this last chance to immerse yourself in the glorious, resplendent pageant of Catholic history.

Editor's note: Advance ticket purchases are highly recommended and are available through Ticketmaster or at the San Diego Museum of Art box office. Tickets are sold for specific dates and times, ranging in price from $18 for adults to $9 for children 6-17, with special discounts for seniors, military, college students, and groups of 15 or more. The exhibit is open from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. every day except Thursday when closing time is 9 PM. Call San Diego Museum of Art at (619) 232-7931 or go online to www.sdmart.org for information. Call (619) 696-1915 for group sales. Allow two to four hours to enjoy the display, which will close on September 6.

Sean M. Wright is an Emmy nominated television writer who presents lectures on historically significant papal elections. He is a member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish in Santa Clarita and can be contacted at FriarTuk49@AOL.com.