Archive Name Change Access Record

PROBLEM: On October 28, 2019, Pope Francis renamed the Vatican Secret Archive the Vatican Apostolic Archive by motu proprio — and the letter says, in terms, that the archive's identity, structure, and mission are unchanged. A name change that changes nothing about access still changes everything about public perception, because "secret" had come to connote something sinister. Without a compliance record that logs the name change, the old name, and the access rules before and after, the public cannot tell whether anything actually opened.

SOLUTION: An archive name-change access record: every institutional rename logged with the authorizing document, the old and new names, and the access rules on both sides of the change — so a rename that changes nothing is provably a rename, and a rename that changes access is provably that too.

EVIDENCE BASIS: DOCUMENTED — Apostolic Letter motu proprio "L'esperienza storica" (Oct 22, 2019), promulgated Oct 28, 2019: "From now on the present Vatican Secret Archive, without prejudice to its identity, its structure and its mission, should be called the Vatican Apostolic Archive." "Secret" in the old name meant private (Latin secretum), not hidden.