In addition to the aforementioned papal reflection, over the years there have been various important documents of the Holy See, including "The pastoral function of Church Archives" (1997) which is the Magna Carta for archivists and ecclesial communities.

A further reminder to the Salesian Family asking them to accept this task came later from the evolution of the archival discipline - and the information technology placed at its service. For decades, a historical archive was considered not as a whole, but as a more or less confused collection of old papers, in a dark corner of a building, instead of a "heritage" of memories to be protected constantly, to be ordered scientifically and utilized wisely.

The documentation produced by a Salesian work should be collected and preserved with real historical and archival intelligence, placed in an appropriate environment for temperature, humidity, light, air, cleaning, etc., and then made available to users through the modern research tools. In Salesian Italy (but not only in Italy), the concern becomes urgent, since the process of reconfiguration of the Provinces and the closing of some houses has been long under way, with obvious repercussions on the reunification of the relevant archives.

To make a contribution to the people responsible for all this (editors of documents, archivists, classifiers, custodians of documents and all who value them) and as a follow-up to the three seminars "Scripta Volant" promoted by the Students of Salesian History (ACSSA) in Madrid, Montevideo and Chennai at the beginning of this century, the Italian ACSSA organized a new seminar at the Salesian House of Sacxro Cuore in Rome from 14 to 26 February. It was entitled "Preservation of historical memories in the Salesian Provinces of Italy". About 40 people participated, mostly Provincial Secretaries.

In the final discussion, many convictions were shared and practical resolutions taken, with some specific proposals for Provincials and those responsible for Salesian archives.

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