Pope Francis: Church must preserve historic audiovisual collections

By Vatican News

Pope Francis is calling for the commitment of the entire Church community to preserve the Church's historical audiovisual fonds, a heritage to be preserved and ordered according to scientific criteria.

After having already discussed the topic in an interview with Msgr. Dario Viganò, granted for the book "Lo sguardo porta del cuore" (The gaze is the door of the heart), Pope Francis turned to the topic once more in a message sent to the newly founded Italian Foundation MAC - Memorie Audiovisive del Cattolicesimo (Audiovisual Memories of Catholicism), chaired by Msgr. Viganò.

The foundation was set up "to respond to the cultural urgency of the recovery, preservation and valorisation of the historical audiovisual heritage and the documentary heritage connected to it, relating to Catholicism."

On Tuesday, the foundation's scientific committee met at the Vatican Apostolic Library. Archbishop Angelo Vincenzo Zani - Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church and member of the scientific committee - read the Pope's words to the committee.

The Pope wrote, "it seems significant to me that your institution, thanks to the involvement of the most important film archival and academic institutions, proposes a vision and a method based on the sharing of heritage and the highest skills and resources at the service of the transmission of the audiovisual memory of Catholicism."

Pope Francis also said he envisages a path that, in the wake of John Paul II's motu proprio La cura vigilantissima, could soon lead to the birth of an institution that would function as the Central Audiovisual Archive of the Holy See and of the entire Church.

The MAC Foundation, chaired by Msgr. Dario Viganò, Vice Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Social Sciences, is made up of Giuliano Canella, CEO Gruppo Alì Spa; Valerio Molinari, Ecogest Spa; Giordano Riello, President Nplus srl; Alessandro Maggioni, CEO Arzanà Srl; Nicola Salvi, Administrator Officina della Comunicazione; Elisabetta Sola, Administrator Officina della Comunicazione.

In his speech, Archbishop Zani recalled that "the recent Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium assigns to the Vatican Library the task 'of collecting and preserving a rich heritage of science and art and of making it available to scholars in search of truth' and the Foundation's scope of activity should also be framed within this framework."