On Thursday 19 May 2022 at 10.30, the event “Rome in the world” (1955-1960), St. Paul’s newsreels and the global pontificate of Pius XII was held at Palazzo Borromeo in collaboration with the CAST (Catholicism and Audiovisual Studies) research centre of the UniNettuno University.
The purpose of the conference was to present the meticulous project developed by the UniNettuno University, supported by SIAE and carried out in partnership with the “Archivio Storico Luce”, the Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual of the Italian Ministry of Culture (MIC) and the San Paolo Society, through which it was possible to rediscover and digitalize the San Paolo newsreels, created between 1955 and 1960.
Introduced by the institutional greetings of Ambassador Francesco di Nitto and moderated by Msgr. Dario Edoardo Viganò (Vice Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences), the event was animated by the reflections of Gianluca della Maggiore (Director of the UniNettuno’s Center “Catholicism and Audio-visual Studies”), Patrizia Severi (UniNettuno’s Centre “Catholicism and Audio-visual Studies”), Enrico Bufalini (Director of the Historical Archive, Istituto Luce Cinecittà) and Antonella Pagliarulo (Regesta.exe).
Representative of the encounter between the Church and the audio-visual world, newsreels provide a history of the events of Catholics throughout the world and of the pontificate of Pius XII, thus constituting a heritage of great historical, artistic and cultural importance. The CAST’s Director Gianluca della Maggiore stressed in his speech – alternated by the viewing of three newsreels – the historical importance of newsreels and highlighted the role of the latter as witnesses of the universal vocation of the pontificate of Pius XII, and his desire to tie tradition (the Catholic Church) and modernity (the world of cinema), as well as his idea of cinema as a functional means for the global propagation of Catholicism.
Subsequently, a key and topical issue was highlighted: digitalization. As Dr Patrizia Severi noted, digitalization is no longer a choice, but is “an integral part of a process of transformation that concerns the community” and that involves any sector, including that of cultural heritage. However, this process is complex since, in order to make quality content available, it is necessary to define shared approaches to identify and define scientific methodologies.
These methodologies apply primarily to the process of creating a database. In her speech, Dr Antonella Pagliarulo of the Regesta company, creator of the portal CAST – Catholicism and Audiovisual Studies, illustrated its operation emphasizing the idea behind: “communicate, make use of and share a heritage” with a view to inclusion and openness.
Finally, the Director of the Istituto Luce Cinecittà’s Historical Archive Enrico Bufalini stressed the cultural relevance of the newsreels “Rome in the world” for the Istituto Luce. The Luce archive is, in fact, a multifaceted archive, rich in various types of contents encompassing art, history, culture, politics and current events.
