Marco Carvalho
Nearly nine years after opening its doors, the Treasure of Sacred Art of Saint Joseph’s Seminary closed for good in mid-September, as requested by the Catholic Diocese of Macau. The local Church cites the need to repurpose the project’s amenities as a justification for the decision. The facilities will be used both by the newly-founded Catholic Institute of Theology in Macau and by Saint Joseph’s Diocesan School.
The Catholic Diocese of Macau should unveil a new exhibition space within this year, the director of the Diocesan Office of Historical Archives and Cultural Heritage told “O Clarim”. Benedict Keith Ip also explained the rationale behind the permanent closure of the Treasure of Sacred Art of Saint Joseph’s Seminary. Established nine years ago, the museum ceased operations on September, 17th.
Inaugurated in October 2016, the Treasure of Sacred Art of Saint Joseph’s Seminary was the result of a concerted effort between the Cultural Affairs Bureau and the Catholic Diocese of Macau. The religious artifacts that made up the exhibition were until recently housed in a building just beside Saint Joseph’s Church, but the need to repurpose the space and use it for new projects forced the local Catholic Church to discontinue the museum. The repurposed facilities will accommodate the Catholic Institute of Theology in Macau, as well as provide Saint Joseph’s Catholic Diocesan high school with extra classrooms, Benedict Keith Ip told “O Clarim”: “The usage of the facilities has changed. The space that the Treasure of Sacred Art used to occupy will be used by Saint Joseph’s high school. The school has requested the expansion of the campus, so that it can guarantee its proper development, but there is no space that the government can provide. To cut a long story short, the school needs to expand in order to meet the requirements of the Education Bureau”, the director of the Diocesan Office of Historical Archives and Cultural Heritage explains. “There is a new divinity school in Macau, the Catholic Institute of Theology and they will use part of the space. The remaining space will be used by the high school, as it will expand some of the classrooms over there”, Mr. Ip adds.
A priceless collection of dozens of holy paintings and relics, church records, vestments and liturgical items was kept, until mid-September, in the Treasure of Sacred Art of Saint Joseph’s Seminary. After the permanent shutdown of the museum, the artifacts were relocated to the warehouses of the Diocese of Macau, where they will remain temporarily stored. For the time being, the Diocesan Office of Historical Archives and Cultural Heritage’s website offers a virtual tour of the exhibition, as it was displayed at Saint Joseph’s Seminary. By the end of the year, however, the Diocese of Macau is expected to disclose the location of a new exhibition space, where the sacred artifacts will be put, once again, on display: “We are now keeping the relics in our storage house, but we are planning for a new exhibition area, so that we can display them again. The location of this new place will be announced later on. Probably, by the end of this year, we will make some new announcements concerning this project”, Benedict Keith Ip explains. “In the near future, we don’t envisage a new partnership with the Cultural Bureau, like the one we had at Saint Joseph’s Seminary. We will find a space, within the Diocese’s facilities to exhibit the artifacts, but they will be displayed at the Diocese’s initiative. When we announce where this new space will be located, we will also explain how people should proceed to book the visits”, the young archivist concludes.
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