CJ-NEWS 2015-19
2015-08-04
EUROPE
www.josephite.community
Studie en ontmoetingsdag voor vrijwilligers
in kerkelijke en religieuze archieven
Study and Meeting day for volunteers in church and religious archives
KADOC Leuven, 30 May 2015
Le frère Michael,
responsable du Centre de Documentation CJ
a assisté à une journée d’étude
organisée par KADOC.
Dans ce centre a été déposée fin 2008
une bonne partie des archives CJ.
Pour le frère Michael c’était une journée
inspirante pour son travail historique
au sein de la congrégation.
On 30th May I participated in a study day organised by KADOC (Catholic Documentation
Centre) in Leuven. There were some 80 participants, of whom about 30 represented various religious orders with a presence in Flanders. The proceedings were in Dutch but all
of the speakers spoke clearly enough for me fully to understand.
The Josephite archives are already in the hands of KADOC who have catalogued them
and keep them in the correct conditions for archival storage. The catalogue of our archives is available online through the KADOC website: https://kadoc.kuleuven.be/ (follow
the link to LIAS). KADOC also has the archives of the Sisters of St Joseph (Bruges). KADOC has the archives of some 80 religious orders in Flanders, and is aware of almost 200
others which the orders concerned have chosen to keep within their own houses, e.g. the
Sisters of Mary and Joseph.
An important part of the day was networking, and I was able to meet Kristien Suenens, a
KADOC researcher with a special interest in 19th century religious orders, and Jo Luytens
who has been responsible for the cataloguing of the Bruges sisters’ archives. On a previous visit to KADOC I had been able to give the centre copies of various “Studia Josephitica” documents and it was clear that they had a) been read and b) well received.
KADOC staff members were also encouraged and pleased that someone had taken the
trouble to come from England to participate in the day.
The day started with a presentation from Godfried Kwanten, of KADOC, and dealt with
the problem of what to keep, what not to keep, how to order it, and how to make it
available to interested parties. A distinction was made between genuinely “archival” material, and what might be termed “collections”.
Following the initial presentation two groups were formed, one being for those with an
interest in the archives of religious orders. This group was addressed by Kristien
Suenens, also of KADOC, and gave a fascinating overview of what has been happening
over the recent past years in the collection and documenting of religious orders’ archives.
Kristien noted that 194 religious orders have so far chosen to keep their archives “at
home”, 84 have placed them in the care of KADOC, and 28 have placed them elsewhere.
There is an ongoing project at KADOC to form an overall picture of religious life in Flanders with statistics of members and houses, but this is proving difficult to complete. Kristien also drew our attention to www.relins.eu, a useful website for information over religious congregations considered from a European aspect.
In the afternoon there was a choice of three possible visits: to KADOC, to the “Rijksarchief” in Leuven, and a guided walk though sites of medical and nursing care in old Leuven. Having already visited KADOC I opted for the “Rijksarchief” visit which was of limited interest.
All in all a fascinating day and it was good to be able to meet others who are engaged in
archival work in Flanders.
Michael cj
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