Mourning for Pope, state archives delete all events, including April 25 events

All demonstrations and events scheduled between today and April 26 inside the Italian State Archives, or at any rate in buildings and rooms managed by state archival offices, are being postponed or canceled in these hours. It is happening because of a decision by Archives Director General Antonio Tarasco to postpone or cancel them “as a sign of condolences for the death of His Holiness Pope Francis,” as written in the missive sent this morning to all Italian institutions.

It is a decision that in fact extends, by a great deal, the obligations related to the national mourning proclaimed by the Council of Ministers on April 22, which included flags at half-mast, minutes of silence, the postponement of sporting events scheduled for Saturday, April 26 (the day of the Pope’s funeral) and the invitation “to carry out all public events in a sober manner and in keeping with the circumstance.”

Falling mourning at the turn of April 25, the 80th anniversary of the Liberation, most of the events that will be postponed or canceled had to do precisely with the resistance and April 25, as moreover claimed by the same General Directorate of Archives a few hours before sending to all offices the note requesting the cancellation or postponement of events. For this reason, the decision-which appears autonomous, and not due to ministerial policy-of the Archives dg could stir controversy.

Among the first to communicate the postponement of events was the State Archives of Ancona, which was forced to postpone the event Despite the Danger: Partisan Women of the Ancona Resistance, scheduled for today, April 23. And the State Archives of Cosenza, which has canceled the opening of the exhibition Cry of Freedom scheduled for tomorrow, April 24. The exhibitions already open should remain open to visitors, but on social media these first announced cancellations are creating some discontent.

In any case, it does not seem to be a politically motivated choice. “These initiatives are an example of how Archives know how to restore the complexity of history through the living and multiple voices of sources. By stimulating critical reflection on how collective memory is also constructed from documents that are often little known or unexplored. It is in this effort of research and restitution that the Archives reaffirm their public and cultural role: not mere repositories of the past, but living places of knowledge, consciousness and citizenship,” said Archives Director General Antonio Tarasco, speaking of the public initiatives held in the State Archives for April 25. Which, however, will not be able to be held, barring a step back by the dg himself.

Mourning for Pope, state archives delete all events, including April 25 events

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