The Polish emigration, over the years powered by successive waves of its countrymen, has created a rich and stable structure of local organizations dealing with different types of cultural and educational activities. In the mid-70s of the last century among members of the Polish cultural institutions in the countries of Western Europe the idea was born to found a permanent organization, guaranteeing statutory cooperation and exchange of experience. The initiative was taken by 8 institutions from 3 countries. In September 1979 in Rapperswil (Switzerland), there was the first founding meeting of the Standing Conference of Museums, Archives and Polish Libraries in the West.
Today the institution has 20 member organizations, established in 7 countries: Argentina, France, Hungary, Canada, USA, Italy and Switzerland. Despite the diverse history and different profile of the collections, in most cases the organizations collect archival and museal documents and maintain libraries. The main initiative of the MAB Conference are annual, several-day plenary sessions. They take place in the headquarters of the member organizations and in the offices of the institutions from Poland cooperating with them. Over the years a steady program of meetings has fixed, covering an organizational part, in which problems of the member institutions are discussed, and the scientific part, during which papers on a specific topic of the session are delivered. In addition to the annual meetings occasionally meetings and special symposia are held, for example for librarians and archivists.
Center for Documentation and Research of the Pontificate of John Paul II was admitted to the MAB Conference in 1984 as the 12th member institution. Among four candidates submitted that year to the Center as the only one fulfilled all the criteria for membership. The Centre for Documentation have organized five plenary sessions. Representatives of the Centre several times presented their papers during the scientific part of the sessions. The next, the 26th Session, of the Standing Conference of Museums, Archives and Libraries Polish in the West also will be held in the Eternal City on 17-21 September 2014. Co-organizers of the meeting, besides the Centre for Documentation, are: the Church and Hospice of St. Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr, in Rome, the Pontifical Institute of Ecclesiastical Studies in Rome and the J.S. Umiastowska Roman Foundation. The main theme of this year’s session is The Route of the 2nd Corps. Papers and readings presented in the scientific part will concern souvenirs, exhibitions, publications on the 2nd Corps as well as testimonies on the fate of the soldiers in the postwar years that are stored by the member institutions of the MAB.
The program of the session also includes a visit to the Polish War Cemetery at Monte Cassino, a Holy Mass, and visiting the newly formed 2nd Polish Corps Memorial. Besides the organizational part there will be also meeting with invited guests from outside the member institutions. Their presence confirmed: the ambassadors of Poland in Italy, representatives of state authorities, the Institute of National Remembrance, the National Library, the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish State Archives. Therefore there will be plenty of opportunity to talk in small groups and sharing experiences.
From the perspective of the just passing September anniversaries and awaiting the events mentioned above, it is worth at the end recall the words of John Paul II who, referring to the collections of the member institutions, said: “… in these documents the nation is living in its generations, in its varied experiences, very often painful. But eventually victorious, just like the Second World War. … It also means something that people cannot live without what was, without history.”