1.2. An Approach towards the Safekeeping of Art-Historical Patrimony

One can interpret the conservation of the patrimony of cultural memory in cultures in different ways. In the West and its cultures, for example, the memory of the past is nourished by conserving artefacts that are obsolete but rich in their art-historical importance or simply for their value as memories. In other cultures, however, the cultivation of memory takes place through the oral tradition of past events because often for climatic reasons the conservation of artefacts is difficult. Finally, in other situations, safekeeping implies remaking the artefacts while respecting the materials and stylistic models. Among all populations, however, the living sense of memory is considered a fundamental value that must be cultivated with great care.

In countries with an older Christian tradition, the art-historical patrimony that has been enriched throughout the centuries with new forms of interpretation, and has been for entire generations a privileged instrument of catechesis and worship has more recently, and at times, acquired an entirely aesthetic value due to secularization. It is wise, therefore, that in these cases the particular churches recall the contextual importance of art-historical goods by means of fitting strategies, so that the artefact with an aesthetic value may not be totally detached from its pastoral function or its historical, social, environmental, and devotional context which it it expressed and witnessed to.

A Church museum is rooted in a specific territory, it is directly connected to the action of the Church and it is the visible witness of its historic memory. It cannot be reduced simply to "the collection of antiquities and curiosities", as Paolo Giovio and Alberto Lollio intended back in the Renaissance, but it must conserve in order to present works of art and objects of a religious nature.

A Church museum is neither a Mouseion, nor the "temple of the Muses" in the etymological sense of the term, recalling the structure founded by Tolomeus Sotere of Alexandria of Egypt; but it is always the building that cares for the art-historical patrimony of the Church. In fact, even if many artefacts no longer carry out a specific Church function, they continue to transmit a message that the Christian communities, living in past epochs, have wanted to hand on to posterity. As a result, one must develop methods to ensure the adequate presentation and conservation of the art-historical patrimony in an ecclesial sense. Such methods should include the following tasks: 

- safekeeping promoted by specific institutions on diocesan and national levels;

- the knowledge of the principal aim and history, besides its major characteristics through the means of inventories and catalogues (See Sacred Congregation for the Clergy, Circular Letter Opera Artis de cura patrimonii historico-artistici Ecclesiae, ad Praesides Conferentiarum Episcopalium, April 11, 1971; AAS 63 [1971] p. 315-317; Codex Iuris Canonici [1983] can. 1283 n. 2-3; Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church, Circular Letter, The Inventory and Cataloguing of the Cultural Heritage of the Church, a Necessary and Urgent Task, see...);

- a contextual approach to the works appreciating their original social, ecclesial, devotional realities;

- the consideration of the works of the past in reference to cultural and ecclesial experience today;

- the preservation and eventual use of works of the past in a pastoral dimension (Secretary of State, Circular Letter to the Bishops of Italy on the preservation, custody and use of Church archives and libraries, April 15, 1923, Prot. N. 16605 [M. Vismara Missiroli, Codice dei Beni Culturali di interesse religioso. I. Normativa Canonica, Milano 1993, p. 188-196]. Ibid., Circular Letter to the Bishops of Italy, September 1, 1924, Prot. N. 34215 [ibid., p. 196-198]).

In order to fulfill these tasks, it would be useful to establish Church museums that, while making reference to the historical and artistic patrimony of a determined territory, also assume the role of centres of cultural education. It also becomes important to coordinate the different offices in charge of the sector of cultural heritage within the Church. Whenever possible one should create ways to ensure collaboration between Church offices and related public offices in order to plan common projects.