The Archbishop of Salzburg, Franz Lackner, handed over two historically valuable papal documents and a small collection of other archival material to the Republic of Croatia. The restitution of the manuscripts to their owners is the result of the digitization of archives and a European cooperation, as Kathpress announced on Friday after the ceremony of the archdiocese in the bishop’s house.
“I can express my friends and satisfaction that the Archdiocese, as the administrator of extensive cultural and artistic assets, fulfills its responsibility in this area and using the most modern standards,” said Lackner when handing over the medieval documents to Ambassador Daniel Gluncic, of the Republic of Croatia represented. The theologian called the return “a great European bridge not only for the archives, but for the Croatian identity”.
The friendly return of the documents was the fruit of the church’s manuscript platform “Monasterium”, explained Ordinary Chancellor Elisabeth Kandler-Mayr. Only this facility made it possible through provenance research to “bring something historically significant back to where it comes from and belongs”.
For the restituted documents, the archive in Dubrovnik is considered the parent company. They came to Austria in the course of refugee movements. Treasures from the archdiocesan collection of scriptures were also said to have been “scattered in all directions” from the archives of the time during the Second World War. “Not everything found its way back, there are some losses,” the canon lawyer pointed out.
The two papal documents are a kind of papal ordinance call for compliance with ecclesiastical territories in what was then Dalmatia and in the Republic of Ragusa (now Dubrovnik) and the second document for instructions on the appointment of a bishop Bernhard for the city, explained archive manager Thomas Mitterecker. The first document in particular is of immense value due to the “good presentation of the historical circumstances and the geopolitical context of the Republic of Ragusa,” said Mitterecker. The second document refers above all to “the duty of obedience to papal personnel decisions in the appointment of bishops”.