A place that evokes “the value of culture and tradition” and that “preserves the historical memory” of those who “have selflessly served the Apostolic See”: these were the words of the Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, when speaking on June 14, at the inauguration of the new room of the Library of the Secretariat of State.
Present alongside the Secretary of State were Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, President of the Governorate of Vatican City State, with Sister Raffaella Petrini, Secretary General, and Giuseppe Puglisi-Alibrandi, Deputy Secretary General, and the superiors of the Secretariat of State itself. State, headed by Archbishops Edgar Peña Parra, substitute, Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, and Luciano Russo, secretary for Papal Representations.
The room was restored and equipped with modern interaction systems thanks to the generosity of the “Ernesto Bertarelli Foundation”: created in 1998, it works in the fields of conservation and marine sciences.
“We are in the age of digital and interconnection and, therefore, it is necessary to ‘be online’, also using the new technological tools that help us work for the Church in the world,” said Cardinal Parolin, recalling then the importance for the Church of bearing witness to beauty and culture, “dialogizing with the particular thirst for the infinite that defines the human being.”
Quoting words from Pope Francis, Cardinal Parolin then added: “We must not stop thinking and talking about beauty, because the human heart not only needs bread… it also needs culture, that which touches the soul, that brings the human being closer. to his profound dignity” (Speech on the occasion of the exhibition, “Everyone. Humanity on the way”, November 5, 2021).
Culture, the Secretary of State also stressed, “lives and breathes, coming out of the shell of self-referentiality, when it favors human encounter and dialogue.” For this reason, the Library is a space of communion and fraternity, according to that beautiful intuition of Saint Paul VI, who said:
“Whoever enters the Library, together with the ‘goods’ that are preserved here, must find there a spirit of welcome, of universality.”
From the Secretary of State also “the memory of so many moments of daily life” lived with colleagues in the Library room, along with the visits of the Supreme Pontiffs to meet with the superiors and collaborators of the Secretariat of State, who “With such dedication they have closely accompanied the joys and works of the Successor of Peter.”
Although the premises “do not house books of purely historical value,” Cardinal Parolin was nevertheless convinced that the structure, improved and modernized, will allow the Church to function. The desire, in short, is that the Library, in its renewed and multimedia form, contributes to growing that healthy inner curiosity that helps us open ourselves to new knowledge and elevate ourselves towards the Mystery of God, so that our service to the Holy “Headquarters contribute to the dissemination of what is beautiful, noble and good for humanity today.”
