ACCORD SIGNED FOR CENSUS OF INQUISITION DOCUMENTS, ARCHIVES

VATICAN CITY, NOV 9, 2004 (VIS) - Early this afternoon, Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls released the following statement:

  "This afternoon Bishop Angelo Amato, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dr. Maurizio Fallace, director general of the Archives of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Goods and Activities, and Prof. Andrea Del Col, director of the Research Center on the Inquisition of the University of Studies of Trieste, will sign an accord of collaboration to carry out a census of the archives and Inquisition documentation in Italy.

  "Such a project regards not only the documentation concerning the Roman Inquisition, preserved in ecclesiastical, state and private archives, as well as in Italian and foreign libraries, but also the documentation of the Spanish Inquisition on Italian territory and that of the secular authorities that instituted processes for heresy, witchcraft and other crimes against the faith.

  "Such a vast operation, never before attempted, is of great importance in answering the new orientations of international research on the control of religious ideas in medieval and modern Europe, and takes advantage of the collaboration between the Ministry for Cultural Goods and Activities, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and a research group of the Italian university, to make more readily available a great documentation patrimony that is little known today and is dispersed throughout multiple places.

  "The census, carried out according to the criteria established by common agreement and with the most advanced technological instruments, will not only seek to safeguard this cultural patrimony, unique in its nature, but will also facilitate knowledge in many fields of research, from the history of religious and scientific doctrines, to that of popular cultures, of 'spontaneous holiness', of censorship, in addition to the systems of social control between the medieval age and modern times.

   "The accord will therefore consolidate and amplify collaboration that has taken place for some time and is being conducted for the service of a better development of man and civil coexistence, in exploring the values of Christianity and western civilization."  
OP/INQUISITION/NAVARRO-VALLS                VIS 20041109 (360)