Vatican City – Tomorrow, November 20, at 3:00 p.m., the book “Cinema and Mission. Audiovisual Sources and History of Catholic Missions” will be presented at the Palazzo de Propaganda Fide.
The book, edited by Gianluca della Maggiore, Sergio Palagiano, Steven Stergar, and Dario Edoardo Viganò, is published by the Foundation “Memorie Audiovisive del Cattolicesimo” and is released by the publishing house “il Mulino.”
The book is the result of a cultural and scientific project that has taken shape over time through conferences, archival collaborations, documentary research, and a joint process of reflection among scholars, archivists, missionaries, and cultural operators.
The presentation will be opened with addresses by Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization , and Msgr. Dario Edoardo Viganò, President of the “Memorie Audiovisive del Cattolicesimo” Foundation. These will be followed by contributions from Flavio Belluomini, Archivist of the Historical Archive of Propaganda Fide; Gianluca della Maggiore, Associate Professor of Cinema, Photography, Television, and New Media at the International Telematic University “Uninettuno”; and Sergio Palagiano, Archivist at the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu.
The essays collected in this volume testify to the richness and variety of the heritage of missionary cinema: from the films of the Xaverians and Salesians, to the newsreels of San Paolo Film, from the photographic collections of Fides to the collections of women’s congregations, from films of missions in Congo, Guyana, India, and Alaska, to the most recent experiences of digitalization.
The MAC Foundation emphasizes that the audiovisual heritage of Catholicism is not merely a supplement to Church memory, but a genuine resource that can open up new fields of research and redefine the categories through which the history of the Church, its mission, and the relationship between faith and modernity is read.
This book is the result of a collaboration with the Vatican Apostolic Library, the Historical Archives of Propaganda Fide, the Dicastery for Evangelization , as well as numerous academic and archival institutions.
The volume offers a valuable overview of how film has documented, interpreted, and sometimes even anticipated the changes in the Church’s relationship with the world. The essays collected in this volume deal with archives to be rediscovered, forgotten films that deserve new attention, and pastoral experiences that have transformed the audiovisual medium into an instrument of evangelization, education, and dialogue.
For more information or to confirm your participation, please send an email to social@fides.va
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