CAGAYAN DE ORO City— The Catholic Church must do more than preserve its historic churches and artifacts, a Catholic bishop said Thursday, urging heritage workers to connect conservation with faith and mission.
Speaking at the closing Mass of the 14th Biennial National Conference on Church Heritage Workers, Bishop Danilo Ulep of the Prelature of Batanes called on participants to link heritage work with hope.
“Cultural patrimony of the Catholic Church is not a collection of museum pieces,” said Ulep, chairman of the bishops’ Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church. “It is a living testimony of faith embodied in stone, wood, canvas, music, ritual, and devotion.”
He warned that churches, statues, hymns and archives could become “ornamental rather than transformational” if they remain disconnected from the poor, young people and marginalized communities.
“Heritage without mission becomes irrelevant, useless or even silent,” Ulep said.
The prelate said church heritage work must reach what he called the “modern Lazaruses,” referring to people and communities often overlooked by church programs or heritage initiatives.
He said restored churches should not only display beauty but also welcome communities and inspire faith through worship, devotion and education.
“May our cultural heritage therefore continue to proclaim hope, not only as an echo of the past, but as a living voice in the present,” Ulep said.
The bishop also urged heritage practitioners to embody the values they promote.
“And that our own lives [as] church heritage practitioners — beyond policies, plans and projects — we become the living heritage,” he said.
Ulep emphasized patience, humility, courage and integrity as essential values for those caring for sacred structures, archives and cultural objects.
“Stewardship of cultural heritage is not merely professional responsibility,” he said. “It is a spiritual discipline accountable to God and future generations.”
“We are not owners of what we inherited from the past,” he added. “We are simply stewards, and stewardship implies accountability.”
