Bishop Nunzio Galantino, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, pictured in 2016. / Alexey Gotovsky/CNA.
Vatican City, Jul 1, 2022 / 09:49 am (CNA).
The Vatican has confirmed the sale of the luxury London property at the center of a financial corruption trial.
A July 1 statement from the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) reported that the Vatican sold the building on 60 Sloane Avenue in London to Bain Capital for £186 million ($223.6 million).
“The losses incurred with respect to what was spent on the purchase of the property were conferred to the reserve of the Secretariat of State, without in any way in this circumstance touching Peter’s Pence or the donations of the faithful,” it said.
The Secretariat of State began to purchase the building eight years ago as an investment property intended for development into luxury apartments. The Vatican spent about 350 million euros ($364 million) on the investment for a building that its previous owner had purchased for £129 million ($155 million), according to the Associated Press.
The circumstances surrounding the property’s purchase are the focus of an ongoing trial in the Vatican courts with accusations of fraud and embezzlement against 10 people.
Pope Francis ordered the removal of responsibility for financial funds and real estate assets, including the London building, from the Secretariat of State in November 2020.
In an August 2020 letter, the pope asked for “particular attention” to be paid to two specific financial matters: “investments made in London” and the Centurion Global investment fund. Pope Francis requested that the Vatican “exit as soon as possible” from the investments, or “at least dispose of them in such a way as to eliminate all reputational risks.”
Control of the secretariat’s real estate assets and investment funds was given to APSA. APSA received 16 initial offers to purchase the London property in September 2021.
In its most recent statement, APSA said that it worked with the real estate broker Savills in the sale “to ensure the transparency and the independence of the evaluation process” and that the Secretariat for the Economy followed every step of the process.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Vatican City, May 2, 2018 / 09:35 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Fra’ Giacomo Dalla Torre was elected Wednesday the 80th Grand Master of the Sovereign Order of Malta, a position usually held for life. Dalla Torre’s predecessor, Matthew Festing, resig… […]
People attend a rally for the release of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza near the U.N. headquarters on Jan. 12, 2024, in New York City. / Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
St. Paul’s Church, in Imphal, capital of Manipur state, after the church was set on fire in 2023. / Credit: Anto Akkara
Bangalore, India, Mar 28, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).
After Indian officials’ announcement that Easter Sunday would be a “working day” this year was met with widespread protests from Christians, the governor of the state of Manipur in northeast India issued a statement reestablishing the annual holiday.
The March 28 reversal by the Manipur government, which is led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came within 24 hours after Manipur Gov. Anusuiya Uikey canceled the Easter holiday.
“In partial modification of the government order … dated 27th March, 2024, the governor of Manipur is pleased to declare that only the 30th March 2024 [Saturday] will be working day for all government offices,” the order read.
The previous day the government had announced that “the governor of Manipur is pleased to declare 30th [Saturday] and 31st [Sunday] March 2024 as working days for all government offices.”
Christians account for nearly half of Manipur’s population of 3.7 million.
Archbishop Linus Neli, who heads the 100,000-strong Catholic Church in the state, told CNA that the Church had protested the cancellations of the Easter holiday to government officials.
“We are storming the competent authority, awaiting reply,” Neli said.
A half an hour later, the archbishop shared with CNA the government’s “revised order regarding [Easter] working day.”
Tribal dancers waiting their turn at the celebration following the installation Mass of the new archbishop of Imphal Archdiocese, Linus Neli. Credit: Anto Akkara
Prior to that, several Christian groups including those in Manipur had called for the cancellation of the order that stunned the Christians across the country.
“The decision to declare these sacred days as regular working days is not only insensitive but also disrespectful towards the religious sentiments of the significant portion of the population in Manipur,” lamented the Senapati District Catholic Union of Manipur in its condemnation of the governor’s order on the morning of March 28.
Of the 3.7 million Christians in Manipur state, 26% are ethnic Naga tribals, 16% are members of Kuki tribes, and more than 10% of the nearly 2 million Meiteis have also embraced the Christian faith in Manipur.
“By compelling government offices to operate on these holy days, the order not only disregards the religious rights of the Christian community but also fails to recognize the cultural diversity and religious pluralism that should be upheld and respected in democratic society,” the Senapati district Catholic forum pointed out.
“Height of insanity of the Manipur government,” a Christian pastor from Manipur who runs a theological college outside Manipur told CNA.
“What is happening is Manipur is nothing new,” John Dayal, an outspoken Catholic columnist and activist, told CNA.
“The BJP governments both at the national level and in several states had tried to insult and tinker with Christian holy days like Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter several times in the past,” Dayal pointed out.
“In 2002, I moved the Delhi High Court successfully against the bid to make Good Friday and Easter Sunday ‘working days’ against the Atal Behari Vajpayee [who was the BJP prime minister then],” said Dayal, a former member of the National Integration Council headed by the prime minister.
“This Manipur move is keeping with [Prime Minister] Modi’s consistent scheme to whittle away rights of Christianity and Islam in new ‘Bharat.’” (Bharat is the new name the Hindu nationalist BJP has proposed for India).
Since May 2023, Manipur has seen a protracted violent clash between the majority Meiteis, most of them Hindus, and the minority Kukis (all of them Christians) that has left more than 230 dead by the official conservative death toll. Over 50,000 Kuki Christians have been chased out from the Imphal valley along with over 10,000 Meiteis who were driven out from Kuki strongholds.
Amid the violence, over 600 churches have also been destroyed. The majority of them were Kuki, but 250 Meiti Christian churches were destroyed as well in what is seen as an attempt to stop Meiteis from embracing the Christian faith.
Meanwhile, in another piece of good news for the Christian community, Carmelite Sister Mercy, who had been arrested on a charge of “abetting the suicide” of a sixth-grade girl at the Carmel School in Ambikapur in central Chattisgarh state, was released on bail on March 28 by the trial court.
The girl student committed suicide at home after the nun had questioned her and two other girls for being together in the bathroom for a long period of time. After other students complained to the nun, she asked the girls to bring the parents to school the next day.
Following the suicide of the girl, Hindu nationalist organizations promptly organized a huge crowd to march to the school. Police were brought in and arrested the nun the next morning. Although the large crowd tried to storm the school on Feb. 8, police prevented an arson attack.
Leave a Reply