Formation Course 2024

During the week of November 4 to 9, 2024, the Capuchin Franciscan Libraries, Archives and Museum Workers Training Course was held at the International College of St. Lawrence of Brindisi in Rome, with the title “Documenting the Past, Accompanying the Present, Supporting the Future, a Service in Continuous Evolution.”

The course was publicized during the General Chapter as a motivation for each circumscription as to its importance, especially the newer ones; one must be responsible to look after one's recorded history.

The course was attended by 40 people, including friars and collaborators, from different countries such as Angola, Brazil, Ivory Coast, Costa Rica, Eritrea, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malta, Romania and Switzerland. Most of these participants were provincial secretaries and archivists, who were very interested in the aspects of historical records management, current archives management, and especially in the new developments in archival matters brought on by digitization. Therefore, the course was an opportunity to learn how to draft and archive documents, and the necessary ways of recording, preserving and enhancing the historical information that is collected over the years.

Various speakers shared their experiences over the week, starting with members of the General Curia: the General Secretariat of the Order with Br. Damian Philip Pereira and Br. Michele Mottura, the General Procurator's Office with Br. Albert D'Souza, Legal Representative Br. Alfredo Rava, the General Postulator Br. Carlo Calloni, former General Councilor Br. Kilian Ngitir, Dr. Patrizia Morelli as Head of the Capuchin Central Library and General Archives, and the president of the Association of Italian Ecclesiastical Archivists Fr. Gianluca Marchetti.

In addition to the topics covered during the week, participants had the opportunity to make study visits to the Central Capuchin Library, the Franciscan Museum, the Central Institute for Cataloging and Documentation (Italian National Photo Library) and the Historical Archives of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Dr. Patrizia Morelli, organizer of the course, summed it up after her experience during the week, “It was a very positive event, first of all for meeting others who work in the fields of archives, libraries and cultural heritage of the Order; secondly, for the opportunities that, as a result of this meeting, may arise in terms of collaborations and initiatives to continue to preserve and enhance our recorded history.”

The annual course was initiated in 2002 for taking the opportunity to experience and to deepen the Order's particular way of caring for the documents and testimonies that make up its history here and around the world.

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