Chicago Area Archivists Unconference

Community Archivist Sister Virginia Jung, OSB had the pleasure of presenting for the Chicago Area Archivists Unconference on October 30 where local archivists convened virtually to share sessions from conferences cancelled due to the pandemic. Channeling Pope PIus VI’s inspirational words, Sister Virginia highlighted religious archives: how they document the passage of God through our world and serve a pastoral function.

Sister Virginia shares a description of her presentation here:

"Have you ever thought that our community archives help to document the passage of God through our world? That’s what Pope Pius VI told Italian church archivists when he addressed their meeting in September 1963. I encountered the expression as I was preparing a research paper for LIS 701 Core Values, Ethics, and Issues in the Library and Information Professions in Fall 2019. Intrigued by this idea, I tracked down the occasion of the quote and continued to read more documents on archives from the Vatican as well as from religious archivists. I came to a deeper understanding that our archives do have a pastoral function; sometimes one that will emerge in the future, that we do not even dream of. On October 30, 2020 , I had the pleasure of presenting the poster for the Chicago Area Archivists Unconference which convened local archivists to share sessions from conferences cancelled due to the pandemic.

In the meantime, this is what we are about: The mission of the Benedictine Sisters of Chicago Archive is to appraise, collect, organize, describe, make available, and preserve information about our monastic community life for the purpose of knowing who we are, telling our story, teaching community history to new members, and addicting in ongoing monastic formation. We hope that use of these materials brings scholars to greater reverence for God at work in their hearts and in our world."