From 1996 to today, 1.5 billion euros have been used with the 8 per thousand funds for the protection of ecclesiastical assets. This artistic heritage corresponds to 70% of the Italian total. It is one of the data that emerged in the national conference promoted by the CEI in Catania (work ends today at the diocesan museum) to take stock of the agreements and projects for the promotion of ecclesiastical cultural heritage 40 years after the signing of the new Concordat between the State Italian and the Holy See.
At the conference, opened by the director of the National Office for Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage of the CEI, Don Luca Franceschini, and moderated by Avvenire’s Vatican correspondent, Mimmo Muolo, there were delegates from all over Italy. Ecclesiastical authorities present (the general secretary of the CEI, archbishop Giuseppe Baturi; the president of the Cesi, monsignor Antonino Raspanti; the archbishop of Catania, monsignor Luigi Renna; the bishop of Caltagirone, monsignor Calogero Peri) and lay people (the prefect of Catania, Maria Carmela Librizzi; the superintendent of cultural heritage, architect Donatella Aprile; the general director of the ministry of cultural heritage, Dr. Luigi La Rocca).
The Diocesan Museum of Catania is a tangible testimony of collaboration and testimony
The location of the national conference, the Diocesan Museum of Catania, was a tangible documentation of the conference theme. Born at the beginning of our century, with 8 per thousand funds, from the renovation and valorisation of a historic abandoned building, in recent months it is hosting an exhibition (curated by Roberta Carchiolo) which is the result of an intense collaboration between the Etna archdiocese, the superintendency to Cultural Heritage and the Ministry of the Interior and which enhances the art treasures preserved mainly in monasteries and convents that have passed under the ownership of the State (Church Buildings Fund).
On the afternoon of Friday 10 May the delegates present at the conference, in two groups, were able to admire the treasures present in the exhibition and retrace the stages of a long journey that goes from the confiscation laws of ecclesiastical assets (1866/67) to the Concordat of 1929 to the new Concordat of 1984 up to the birth of the 8 per thousand and the active participation of the CEI in the dialogue with the Italian State.
Archbishop Baturi: making the instruments of dialogue between Church and State on cultural heritage operational
Archbishop Giuseppe Baturi masterfully retraced the fundamental stages of this history, and focused on the need to strengthen dialogue and collaboration between the State and the Church, each in its own sphere, but together in the search for the good of the person and of society. In particular, Monsignor Baturi insisted on the need to make the instruments of dialogue between Church and State operational in the field of ecclesiastical cultural heritage. An example for everyone: the Central Observatory on ecclesiastical cultural heritage. The secretary of the CEI asked for it to have periodic meetings and clearer and more uniform guidelines. But he also indicated some good practices. Like the one implemented for the restoration of the ecclesiastical cultural heritage affected by the 2016 earthquake in central Italy, which saw the dioceses implementing the restoration interventions.
Archbishop Renna: safeguarding, valorisation and dissemination
For his part, the archbishop of Catania, Monsignor Luigi Renna, in his report at the conference, placed the emphasis on the regeneration of territories and on the announcement of the Gospel through art. “It is not just a question of safeguarding religious artistic assets – said the archbishop of Catania – but also of valorising them as an opportunity for the dissemination of a culture”. “The Church – according to Monsignor Renna – with her presence in the world helps all men to take questions of meaning seriously”.
