The Pope decided “to abolish free and advantageous accommodation for cardinals, heads of departments, presidents, secretaries, undersecretaries, executives, auditors and others” in the institutions of the Holy See.
Pope Francis has ordered the elimination of free or cheap rental of houses belonging to the Holy See to cardinals, bishops and other senior Vatican officials, various media reported on Wednesday.
The pope’s decision came at the end of an audience with the new prefect of the Vatican’s Economic Secretariat, Spaniard Maximino Caballero, on February 2.
On this occasion, Francis asked “that more resources be allocated and reserved for the Apostolic See, also increasing income from the management of real estate assets,” reads the document published by the Messainlatino.it portal.
The Pope thus decided “to abolish the free and advantageous accommodation for cardinals, heads of departments, presidents, secretaries, undersecretaries, executives, auditors and others, from the Court of Broken Rome, from the buildings belonging to the curial institutions and from the bodies belonging to la Santa Ver”, underlines the document.
“The ownership bodies (of real estate) must apply to the subjects mentioned the same prices applicable to those who do not own property in the Holy See or in the Vatican City State”.According to the document.
It also specifies the need to pay, according to current rates, accommodation in the “Domus Santa Marta”, the residence inside the Vatican where the Pope lives and that many prelates, but also visitors, sometimes use as a hotel without paying .
The document establishes that the contracts currently stipulated will be maintained until their completion and then the new rents will be applied.
Likewise, the Pope has established that any modification of this regulation must be authorized directly by him.
Also in the document, the Pope removes the “housing contributions”, supplements that are paid to cover income.
The real estate assets of the Holy See managed by APSA in Italy consist of 4,051 properties in the country and some 1,120 abroad, not including their embassies.
In Italy, the Vatican owns approximately 1.6 million square meters and only 15 percent goes to the free market, of which 30% has subsidized rentals for employees, pensioners and other forms of assistance and 55% remaining for institutions or free loan. such as schools or universities.
Source: Observadora
