José Tolentino de Mendonça

"To understand the vocation and mission of these centuries-old institutions, perhaps the most correct thing to do is to recall the centrality of the dimension of memory in the life of the Church. It truly bases its existence on the historical and sacramental memory of Jesus’s words and actions. The Church is all the more alive the more it is aware of the living memory that pulses within it and assures its continuity. The Library and the Archives are antidotes to amnesia. For example, one of the fundamental missions of the Apostolic Library is to conserve some of the most ancient specimens of the manuscript tradition of Sacred Scripture. That alone should be enough to consider it as the heart of the Church."