Disasters, Memory and Liturgy. Liturgical Spaces in the Reconstruction Process of Historical Churches Damaged by Earthquakes

Seismic events demonstrated the high level of structural vulnerability of Italian ecclesiastical heritage. This paper investigates liturgical reordering applied (or not applied) in the post-earthquake reconstruction of churches. The aim is to analyze if the tragic circumstance of a post-earthquake reconstruction has been taken as an opportunity to renovate the sacramental space as a whole, and above all, to evaluate in which way the memory of the disaster and mourning may have influenced the celebratory aspects. The paper focus on the several criteria that may support choices for churches reconstruction, with or without the assimilation of the liturgical modifications introduced by the Second Vatican Council. If fifty years later, the process of the liturgical modification continues to be problematic in churches with a high heritage or historical value, the issue is event more complex for those buildings affected by catastrophic event and where communities are wounded by traumatic event as an earthquake.