International Conference

Decoding Heritage: Young People and the Cultural Heritage of the Church

(Rome, Pontifical Gregorian University, 11-12 june 2024)

Presentation

The Dicastery for Culture and Education, promotes an international conference entitled Decoding Heritage: Young People and the Cultural Heritage of the Church in collaboration with the Pontifical Gregorian University - Department of the Cultural Heritage of the Church and the Italian Episcopal Conference - National Office for Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage and Worship Buildings.

We live in an era of rapid changes. Some narratives highlight how the digital connection seems to be associated with the disconnection between young people and the cultural tradition. Most describe youth as distant or disinterested in the richness that comes to us from the past. However, there are trends and initiatives that demonstrate a growing enthusiasm and capacity for involvement on their part. The relationship between young people and cultural heritage is evolving, marked by challenges but also full of promise. The way in which new generations approach church cultural heritage is indicative of wider cultural and spiritual trends. The conference aims to investigate the transformation of the imaginary and identify the demands of the new generations.

Social media have radically transformed access to information, democratising it and making it ubiquitous. This has also had a significant impact on the enjoyment of cultural heritage: museums, archaeological sites and archives have adopted digital platforms to make their collections globally accessible, offering virtual tours, online catalogues and interactive applications. For young, digital natives, these technologies offer an immediate and engaging access point to cultural heritage, facilitating their first exposure to such content.

However, digital interaction also presents challenges. The vastness of available information tends to complicate the filtering of quality content and encourage a superficial approach, reducing the cultural experience to mere likes or quick glances at a screen, shaping the sense of taste. How to establish a deep and sustainable engagement with cultural heritage today? How to highlight its spiritual value? This is why today it is now a matter of urgency that we reflect on its conservation, interpretation and enjoyment, particularly that of the Church, also in the light of the new aesthetic skills that are increasingly developing in our context.

What, then, is the relationship experienced between the new generations and the artistic and cultural heritage, especially the Christian religious heritage? Has the relationship linking past and future really broken down, or have the ways of relating between young people and the wealth we have received from history changed? ‘How do we “decode” a treasure that makes us capable of imagining the future from tradition?

Starting from a Christian vision of history - which sees in cultural heritage the testimony of the roots of our faith, and the capacity of this faith to incarnate itself in every culture with which it has come into contact - the conference aims to identify some keys to be offered so that cultural heritage can once again become a testimony of civilisation and faith for them too, bringing about a necessary generational encounter in this field.

To meet this challenge, various initiatives are trying to involve young people in a more active and participative way. The conference will present some of them. In fact, it is no longer just a matter of contemplating works of art, but of interacting with them: storytelling projects, artistic re-interpretation activities and educational and training programmes that encourage research and personal creation. These experiences enable young people to see cultural heritage not only as evidence of the past, but as living sources of inspiration, reflection and creativity. There is an urgent need to build bridges between past and future, spirituality and culture, tradition and innovation.

The conference, therefore, intends to raise a major challenge: to recognise the active role of young people as custodians and propagators of the religious cultural heritage. By encouraging them to contribute to its preservation, enhancement and pastoral reinterpretation they are given the opportunity to see themselves as active participants in cultural history and the future.

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The conference addresses to people engaged in the care, conservation and enhancement of cultural heritage, especially religious heritage, university, secondary and primary school teachers; priests, religious men and women and lay people engaged in youth, tourism and leisure pastoral work.

During the two days of the conference -Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 June 2024- there will be both presented theorical relation and some experiences and good practices from various parts of the world. In addition, each of the two mornings will include a round table discussion on the issues raised.

The conference is divided into four sections, the first of which is dedicated to the general dynamics and difficulties of young people's relationship with the sacred today. The remaining three, meanwhile, more specifically enter into the theme of religious cultural heritage and its transmission - which is a true 'art' - especially to the younger generations, in order to attempt, through it, an evangelisation of their existential spaces.

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The conference has benefited from the following scientific committee:

His Eminence Card. José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, Vatican

Msgr. Fabrizio Capanni, Dicastery for Culture and Education, Vatican Dr. Cristiano Grisogoni, Dicastery for Culture and Education, Vatican

Prof. Luigi Bartolomei, Department of Architecture, University of Bologna

Prof. Ottavio Bucarelli, Department of the Cultural Heritage of the Church, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome

Prof. Luca Diotallevi, Department of Educational Sciences, University of Roma Tre Sister Emanuela Edwards, Office for Educational Activities, Vatican Museums

Don Luca Franceschini, Director Office for Cultural Heritage and Worship Buildings of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Rome

Don Michele Gianola, Undersecretary and Director of the Pastoral Office for Leisure, Tourism and Sport, Italian Episcopal Conference, Rome

Fr Umberto Bordoni, Director of ‘Christian Art’ and the Beato Angelico School, Milan Prof. Don Juan Rego Bárcena, Vice-Director Institute of Liturgy, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome

ACCREDITATION PROCEDURE

Journalists and media operators must apply, no less than 48 hours before the event, through the Holy See Press Office online accreditation System available at: press.vatican.va/accreditamenti