“The idea is to build a space on the web that can serve as a reference point for the strand of studies both on the research side and on the teaching side,” Viganò said in a speech delivered May 2.
“Secondly, the idea is to build a space that, in collaboration with film libraries and archives, functions as a thematic historical portal for accessing the patrimony.”
In a message to the foundation May 2, Pope Francis said “the goals your foundation intends to pursue respond to a real cultural urgency for the whole Church.”
“Audiovisual sources have, after all, become historical traces central to our recent past,” he said.
The pope called video footage a “complement” to written records accessible to anyone, no matter his or her language or education level.
“Although they are a recent heritage, the sources are a fragile patrimony that needs constant care: The Church Catholic has already, unfortunately, lost much of the audiovisual documentation that tells its 19th- and 20th-century history, due to neglect and lack of resources and expertise,” he said.