Vatican Unveils Groundbreaking Study of “Apostolic cinema” and Missionary history
A new volume, “Cinema and Mission. Audiovisual Sources and History of Catholic Missions,” presented in rome at the headquarters of Propaganda Fide, redefines the understanding of missionary filmography, elevating it from amateur documentation to a significant field of study and a powerful tool for evangelization. The book, a collaborative effort between the MAC Foundation, Audiovisual Memoirs of catholicism, and published by il Mulino, draws on resources from the Vatican Apostolic Library, the Historical Archive of Propaganda Fide, and the Dicastery for Evangelization, among other institutions.
The volumeS launch, held this afternoon, showcased compelling examples of missionary cinema, from images of sleds traversing the icy landscapes of Alaska to scenes of equatorial forests and religious rites in Congo.These visual testimonies, as highlighted by Archbishop Samuele Sangalli, assistant secretary of the Dicastery for Evangelization, reveal a “cinema of the incarnation,” portraying “the face of Christ in the faces of the poor, of the last, of peoples on the journey.”
A New Category: “Apostolic Cinema”
Researchers are now advocating for a new interpretive framework for understanding this unique ci
