The Nature, Aim, and Typology of the Church Museum

2.1. The Nature

2.1.1. Preservation in an ecclesial sense

In order to understand the nature of an ecclesiastical museum one should underline the fact that the presentation of the cultural heritage of the Church must take place first and foremost in the Christian cultural context. The art-historical patrimony of the Church was not made for a museum function but in order to express worship, catechesis, culture and charity. However, in the course of time as pastoral needs and people's tastes change, many artefacts became obsolete. Therefore, the problem of their conservation arose in order to guarantee their survival due to their art-historical value. The actual conservation and safeguarding from illicit acts sometimes imposes drastic solutions because the risks of dispersion are increasing even in an indirect way. Likewise the urgency of constituting ecclesiastical museums becomes evident in order to gather the witness of Christian history and its artistic-cultural expressions in adequate places, and to make them visible to the public after having organized them properly according to specific criteria.

Ecclesiastical museums are therefore strictly connected to particular churches, and, within these, to the community they serve. They are "not storehouses for inanimate finds, but enduring nurseries in which the genius and spirituality of the community of believers is handed on" (John Paul II, Message to the participants of the Second Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church, September 25, 1997, n. 2 [L'Osservatore Romano, September 28, 1997, p. 7]). Consequently, the ecclesiastical museum is not simply a collection of objects in disuse. It becomes entirely part of the group of institutions of pastoral activity because it protects and enhances that cultural patrimony once "placed at the service of the Church's mission" and now significant from an art-historical point of view (John Paul II, Address, October 12, 1995, note n. 3). It becomes an instrument of Christian evangelization, of spiritual elevation, of dialogue with those "outside", of cultural formation, of artistic enjoyment, and of historical knowledge. It is therefore a place of knowledge, enjoyment, catechesis, and spirituality. Thus, "the importance of parochial, diocesan and regional ecclesiastical museums and of literary, musical, theatrical or cultural works of religious inspiration in general must be stressed, to give a concrete and beneficial appearance to the historical memory of Christianity" (ibid., Message of September 25, 1997, note n. 3) and therefore make visible the pastoral action of the Church in a given territory.

The ecclesiastical museum is to be considered an integral and interactive part of other institutions existing in each particular church. In organizing it, it should not represent a separate institution, but it should be connected to and placed in a territory in order to make visible the unity and inseparability of its entire art-historical patrimony, its continuity and development in time, its fruition now in the Church environment. Since it is intimately connected with the mission of the Church, its content should not lose its intrinsic aim and destination in terms of the use for which it was created.

The ecclesiastical museum, therefore, is not a static structure but a dynamic one that finds full promotion through the coordination of museum artefacts with those still in place. One should guarantee on a juridical and practical level the eventual temporary re-use of museum artefacts, both for strictly pastoral and liturgical reasons as well as for social and cultural ones. Initiatives of cultural promotion and dialogue should be launched for the sake of the study, enjoyment and use of museum treasures. In fact, through museums, exhibits, conventions, sacred plays, performances and other events as well, one should be able to read once more organically and relive spiritually the history of a specific Church community that still exists.