Creating communities in the suspended time of the pandemic

The text aims to focus the mission of ecclesiastical museums in contemporary society with reference to the Circular letter on the pastoral function of ecclesiastical museums issued in 2001 by the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church and to the message addressed by Pope Francis to the Italian Ecclesiastical Museums Association at the private audience on May 24, 2019. The contribution aims to highlight the strategic role of ecclesiastical museums in the delicate phase that our society is living in the suspended time of the pandemic. Finally, two initiatives of the Tridentine Diocesan Museum, the Museum of Quarantine and the "Risvegli" exhibition, designed to preserve the intangible heritage of reflections matured during the period of "forced detention" and to stimulate the debate on the criticalities and opportunities that the emergency due to the Covid-19 has highlighted.