4.3. Use within the entire territory

With the use of the ecclesiastical museum, one can launch initiatives to promote the recognition of cultural heritage present in the territory. In this regard it would be advisable to: 

- arrange meetings between believers and non-believers, faithful and pastors, visitors and artists;
- promote awareness-raising in families as a place of education for Christian art and for an understanding of the values transmitted by it;
- inspire young people towards the culture of memory and the history of Christianity.

By its very nature the ecclesiastical museum must remain in close connection with the territory in which it carries out its specific pastoral mission since it gathers that which came from this territory in order to offer it again to the faithful through a double itinerary of historical memory and aesthetic fruition. Besides being an "ecclesial place", the ecclesiastical museum is in fact a "territorial place" because faith inculturates itself in specific environments. The materials employed for the production of the many artefacts refer to precise natural contexts. The buildings have a definite impact on the environment; artists and commissions are tied to the tradition that develops in a certain place; the contents of the works themselves are inspired and respond to the necessities tied to the habitat in which the Christian community develops. Monumental complexes, artworks, archives and libraries are conditioned by the territory and refer to it. Even the ecclesiastical museum is not a separate place, but in continuous physical and cultural contact with the surrounding environment.

Consequently, the ecclesiastical museum is not extraneous to other Church settings that belong to a certain territory. All have in fact the same pastoral aim and, in their different typology, weave an organic and differentiated relationship. This continuity is stressed in the mind of the Church through the cultural assets placed at the service of her mission. Such goods enter into a unique dialogue by which as a matter of regulation they are coordinated among themselves and as a matter of fact they must express this unity through their complexity and diversity. For its part, the museum gathers and assembles art-historical treasures by making visible a reference to the whole territory and to the ecclesial framework.

In reference to the territory the ecclesiastical museum carries out various functions. First of all, it abides by a traditional one of "conservative gathering" of what has derived from the areas in which the individual local churches have developed but can no longer be kept in their places (due to difficulty in custody, unknown provenance of the artefacts, alienation or destruction of the original places, degradation of the structures of provenance, seismic risks or other natural disasters). One can add, however, other functions that must be carefully considered while planning an ecclesiastical museum. The layout of the artefacts must show the history of a certain portion of the church. The museum structure is called to document the entire ecclesiastical territory, and thus should connect what it contains to the places of provenance. In order to make evident the continuity between the past and the present, the ecclesiastical museum should provide a stable memory of the history of a Christian community and, at the same time, it is also called to welcome occasional events of contemporary artistic expression connected to the action of the Church.

These functions suggest the use, whenever possible, of new multimedia technology that is able to present in a virtual, systematic and visual manner the intimate tie between the museum and the territory from which its assets come. In this sense the concept of an ecclesiastical museum can be specified as an integrated and spread out museum. Such an assertion refers to polycentric structures for which the diocesan museum carried out a role of coordination. Thus, around it, one can display the cathedral treasure and the cultural assets of the chapter in rotation; the collections of the parish churches and other Church places; the works contained in all the monumental complexes; and eventual archeological finds. A network is thus woven that can dynamically connect the diocesan museum with other museum structures and all the Church's cultural assets with the entire territory.

In particular, the diocesan museum carries out a peculiar task since it shows the unity and consistency of the cultural assets of the particular churches. In it, one should present the inventory of the entire art-historical patrimony of the diocese. With the aid of explanations that can be easily understood, one should place the cultural assets conserved and other assets present in their context within the domain of the ecclesiastical territory. With the use of scientific instruments one should have access to the inventory and the catalogue of the art-historical patrimony of the area (at least for that which is of public use). Thus a complex explanation of the inculturation work of faith within the territory is set in motion; that unites the entire activity of the local Church aimed at the production of cultural assets that are suitable to her mission; that shows the cultural and spiritual importance of the deposit of memory; that stimulates a sense of belonging to collectivity through the heredity handed down by individual generations; that favours solutions of protection and scientific research; that opens up to welcome contemporary works so as to demonstrate the vitality and the pastoral function of the cultural assets of the Church present in each reality in which the Christian message has been widespread.

In this sense the diocesan museum can constitute a cultural centre of great importance, because founded on the art-historical deposit that qualifies and unites the entire Christian community.

Together with it, the cathedral must represent a living patrimony that has in its complex a museum-treasury, structures and works that function to meet the various ceremonial and organizational needs. In the same way parishes, shrines, monasteries, convents, confraternities, are places that own artefacts protected within their own structures or in a centralized museum (with the guarantee to re-use them in particular circumstances). Even restoration laboratories and technical offices must make reference to such a diocesan center in order to insert themselves in the vital complex of the particular church. The conservation task reduces itself thus as only one aspect of the activity of enhancement that centers around the diocesan museum. Artworks, liturgical furnishings, vestments, etc. that for reasons of security, due to disuse or alienation of cultual complexes or to the precarious conditions or destruction of the structures housing these items converge in ecclesiastical museums, remain thus a living part of the cultural assets of the ecclesial community and the entire civil collectivity present in the territory.

The notion of an integrated museum system widens considerably and assumes ecclesial importance in reference to other civil institutions present in the territory. Such a concept brings about the juridical recognition of such entities as a whole; forms the basis for the request of public funding; conditions the cultural policies of the region; establishes systems of regulation and protection of employees and volunteers. Consequently, this new configuration has an undeniable social and political valence because it offers a cultural service of public utility and opens discreet opportunities of employment.

The typology of the wide-spread and decentralized ecclesiastical museum system qualifies the territory while enhancing the entire ecclesiastical art-historical patrimony. In this perspective the individual museum or collection is no longer a place of deposit or gathering of works detached from their context but a qualifying element of the local culture that has relations with other cultural assets.

The decentralized system that leads to the protection of the works in both the places of provenance and these same ecclesiastical spaces, underlines especially minor arts and at the same time makes precious every individual portion of the diocesan territory made up of parishes, convents, shrines, etc. If liturgical furnishings in disuse, lying around in churches, could be concentrated in one museum, they would be lacking the sees of provenance and the museum would become a deposit overcrowded by material. Such an option would devaluate these same artefacts that besides so many others and more important works, would become unimportant and less useful. Therefore, one should safeguard on site the various expressions that endow the environment evoking the memory of the benefactors and the commissions, famous artists and simple craftsmen, past traditions and current customs. If suitable structures are missing or can not be established, it would then be preferable to house the items in a centralized museum complex.

The diocesan museum can become a place for awareness-raising of the ecclesial community and a place for dialogue between the various cultural forces present within the territory. In order for this to take place one must proceed to assure a connection between inventories and catalogues; sollicit topographical and photographic documentation in the recording of the provenance of the works as well as the territory; promote illustrated stands, contemporary exhibitions, art-historical studies, restoration campaigns; organize guided visits that starting from the museum may lead to other monumental complexes in the area. This coordinated group of events will show the work done by the Church in a certain region and will favour the protection of cultural assets in their original context.