The Director of the National Secretariat of Cultural Goods of the Church (SNBCI), Fátima Eusébio, defended that the Church should plan and draw up preventive conservation plans for its heritage to prolong the life of objects and avoid costly damage. In an interview to the Ecclesia program on RTP2, the official stated that this position results from the observation of problems detected in inadequate procedures by those who deal with ecclesiastical heritage.
The SNBCI promotes from September 15th an online training course on preventive conservation, divided into four sessions, covering basic procedures for the care of immovable, movable and integrated heritage under the responsibility of parishes. The trainer is Eva Raquel Neves, from the Commission of Cultural Goods of the Church of the Diocese of Santarém, who will propose practical guidelines on recurring realities in daily parish life.
The course covers four modules: the building (September 15th), integrated heritage such as carving, retables, mural painting, tile panels and stone (September 22nd), movable heritage including painting, sculpture and furniture (September 29th), and textiles, goldsmith work, books and documents (October 6th). Fátima Eusébio highlighted that it is not a scientific course, but one of good practices, exemplifying that churches should be vacuumed instead of swept to avoid raising dust that settles on the heritage.
The training is aimed at priests, deacons, acolytes, sextons, brotherhoods, confraternities, religious institutes, catechists, conservation and restoration technicians, and also architects and engineers. The official acknowledged the work of those who care for the spaces, but warned that the absence of knowledge frequently leads to the adoption of inadequate procedures that do not help the preservation of heritage.
