Collections - Policy
Canon 486 P1 states that "All documents pertaining to the diocese or theparishes should be kept with the greatest of care". Canon 486 P.2 goes on to say that "In every curia there should be established, in a safe place, a diocesan archives or repository, in which materials and documents dealing with diocesan affairs, both spiritual and temporal, should be arranged in a certain order and carefully arranged".
Records, are unique as they are the original documents produced in the conduct of diocesan business and document diocesan life and activity. While all records do not have enduring value, those that do are transferred to the custody of the Archives based on predetermined retention schedules, independent of media type. Here they are organized, preserved and administered in accordance with civil and canon law. Analog archives and inactive records are housed in environmentally secure closed stacks of the Archives and Records Office in the Cardinal Rigali Center and indexed in the TRIM system. Electronic records are both maintained and indexed in the TRIM system.
The entire collection of archival materials was historically organized according to the then format of the National Archives into Record Groups, Series and Items. Today a functional classification system is being employed. For guidelines on actual use of the collection refer to the Access Policy.