CULTURAL PATRIMONY AT THE SERVICE OF EVANGELIZATION

VATICAN CITY, MAR 31, 2000 (VIS) - This morning in the Hall of Popes, the Holy Father welcomed the 45 participants in the plenary of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church, who have been meeting on the theme "The Cultural Patrimony in the Context of the New Evangelization."

He highlighted how the plenary assembly had "sought to configure the concept of 'cultural patrimony' to the 'mens' of the Church," to "draw attention to the immense historical-artistic patrimony which exists," and to "be concerned with the formation of workers" in this field.

The Pope encouraged the members "to spare no efforts to see that the works of culture and art turned over to the care of the Church are always used more efficaciously in the service of authentic human progress and the spreading of the Gospel." The Church's cultural patrimony, he said, including churches, monuments, museums, archives and libraries, is an important part of her mission of evangelization and human promotion.

"The Church is not only the custodian of her past," affirmed John Paul II, "she is above all the animator of the present in the human community. ... As such she increases continually her cultural patrimony to meet the needs of every era and culture."

The Pope then remarked that "as is well known, worship has always had a naturally ally in art, given that the monuments of sacred art add to their intrinsic aesthetic value those of catechesis and worship. It is therefore necessary to make good use of them, bearing in mind their liturgical 'home' ... and seeing to it that the historical-artistic patrimony at the service of liturgy loses nothing of its own eloquence."

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