The Vatican is helping organise an international conference to help dioceses work with their local communities in finding appropriate uses for decommissioned churches.
The Pontifical Council for Culture, together with Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University and the Italian bishops' conference, will sponsor the gathering, titled "Doesn't God Dwell Here Anymore? Decommissioning Places of Worship and Integrated Management of Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage," November 29-30 in Rome.
In the run-up to the conference, the public is invited to photograph and post on Instagram examples of deconsecrated churches being reused in a positive way, since examples of churches turned into nightclubs and gyms garner the bulk of media attention.
