Holy See to participate in Olympic opening ceremony, IOC strategy session

Vatican City, Apr 13, 2017 / 03:35 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Early Easter greetings and birthday wishes were the reason for Pope Francis’ visit with Pope emeritus Benedict XVI on Wednesday.

Following his annual custom, Francis visited his predecessor… […]

St. Peter’s Basilica. / Bohumil Petrik/CNA

Vatican City, May 15, 2021 / 03:00 am (CNA).

In 2015, facing scandals in the healthcare sector, Pope Francis established a Pontifical Commission for the Activities of the Public Juridical Persons of the Church in the Healthcare Sector. The board of the Commission was renewed in June 2020. However, there is no trace of the Commission in the Annuario Pontificio.

The absence of the commission is striking, especially considering it has a dedicated page on the Vatican website. Even so, it is not among the organs listed in the Roman Curia page on the Vatican website.

The commission was designed as an organ of the Roman Curia, attached to the Secretariat of State and its regulations. The commission’s objective was to control and supervise how the health facilities managed by religious congregations manage money and assets.

The Ccmmission was established in 2015, following a series of scandals that affected some Catholic healthcare facilities.

The most important is known that of the crack of the IDI, the Dermopathic Institute of the Immaculate, which had found itself 800 million euros in debt due to systematic embezzlement of funds by some administrators and had had to declare bankruptcy in 2012. In 2015, the Secretariat of State acquired the hospital, pulling it out of the bankruptcy administered by the Italian state, through a for-profit partnership with the religious order that had owned and managed the hospital.

Recently, the Fatebenefratelli Hospital on Tiber Island risks being sold after another financial crash.

Not to mention the case of the Camillians, an order that manages 114 hospitals in the world, founded by St. Camillus de Lellis in the 16th century with the specific task of “giving complete service to the sick person” and “being a school of charity for those who share the mission of assistance to the sick.” 

In 2013, Fr. Renato Salvatore, superior of the Camillians, was arrested because he organized the kidnapping of two Camillians friars to be re-elected as general superior. Fr. Salvatore wanted to secure the re-election to keep control over the Hospital of Santa Maria della Pietà in Casoria, near Naples.

When Pope Francis established the commission in 2015, he stressed that its aim was that of “contributing to the more effective management of activities and the conservation of assets while maintaining and promoting the charism of the founders.”

The board of the commission was appointed in 2015 and renewed in June 2020. The president is still the same: Monsignor Luigi Mistò, president of the Holy See’s Health Assistance Fund, is president.

Msgr. Segundo Tejado Muñoz, the undersecretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, joined the commission to replace Msgr. Jean-Marie Mupendawatu, who was secretary of the Pontifical Council for Healthcare Workers until its suppression and absorption into the integral human development dicastery.

Out Mariella Enoc, president of the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital board, owned by the Holy See. Still, Giovanni Barbara, professor of commercial law, a consultant to Mariella Enoc, joined the Commission.

Other members: Renato Balduzzi, full professor of Constitutional Law at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan and former Minister of Health in the Monti government; Fabrizio Celani, national president of the Catholic Association of Healthcare Workers; Maurizio Gallo, entrepreneur in the consulting and institutional relations sector and also involved in the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation; and Saverio Capolupo, tax magistrate.

On Feb. 16, 2019, Pope Francis appointed Capolupo as a consultant for the Vatican City State, particularly for the structures provided for by the state’s legal system in economic, tax, and fiscal matters. Capolupo, among other things, was called to chair the Luigi Maria Monti Foundation, which manages the IDI, after the foundation had been led for a concise period by a son of the Congregation of the Immaculate Conception who had founded the hospital, Father Giuseppe Pusceddu.

Sister Annunziata Remossi, an official of the Congregation of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, was confirmed as secretary of the commission. At the same time, Fr Marco Belladelli, ecclesiastical assistant of the Catholic Union of Italian Pharmacists, was appointed director of the Commission Office, “With the right to participate, with voice and vote, in the activities of the same.”

All names that stood to testify how the commission’s work should continue and continue with experts.

There are various hypotheses for why the commission is not included in the Pontifical Yearbook, all speculations.

The first is that being an active commission until the pope decides otherwise is not considered an organ of the Curia in all respects, even though the statutes say the opposite.

The second is that the Vatican does not want to publicize the commission’s work too much, considering that it must intervene in challenging and complex situations.

The third is that the commission is not considered active because the meetings have almost not taken place – according to a source familiar with the commission, the board met twice and virtually after the new membership was announced.

However, it remains a mystery why such an organ is not present in the 2020 pontifical yearbook.

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Matthew Lee, Taiwan’s ambassador to the Holy See, speaks at a celebration of Taiwan’s 113th National Day at a reception organized by the Embassy of the Republic of China to the Holy See in Vatican City, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. / Credit: Fabio Gonnella/EWTN

Vatican City, Oct 10, 2024 / 12:50 pm (CNA).

Taiwan’s ambassador to the Holy See, Matthew Lee, emphasized the importance of the Vatican-Taiwan partnership, particularly in promoting peace and religious freedom, in a recent interview with CNA.

“Taiwan has enjoyed diplomatic relations with the Holy See for 82 years. That’s very important because it means the Holy See recognizes Taiwan as a country that values religious freedom and its communion with the universal Church,” Lee told CNA at a reception ahead of Taiwan’s National Day, which is celebrated each year on Oct. 10.

The Oct. 2 event held near St. Peter’s Basilica drew cardinals, bishops, and diplomats accredited to the Holy See, underscoring the democratic island’s ties with the Vatican, one of only 12 remaining nations in the world that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

“In Taiwan, the Catholic people [number] about 3%, but it’s very powerful,” the ambassador said. Taiwan’s National Eucharistic Congress on Oct. 5 drew more than 10,000 people, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was the fifth Eucharistic congress held in Taiwan since 2011.

In his remarks at the event, Lee highlighted how Taiwan and the Vatican have worked “hand in hand” to provide humanitarian aid and contribute to the international community.

“In the future, Taiwan will continue to cooperate with the Holy See and like-minded democracies to jointly safeguard regional peace and stability, protect religious freedom, and create a society of greater justice and peace for humanity,” Lee said.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, Cardinal Silvano Tomasi, Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, and other Vatican officials attended the celebration. Re offered a blessing for the food at the event held on the feast of the Guardian Angels, praying that angels may always protect Taiwan so that it may “always live in peace.”

Amid Taiwan’s National Day celebrations, the Chinese military put pressure on the democratic island by sending 15 planes across the median line of the Taiwan Strait, according to the Associated Press.

The ambassador emphasized Taiwan’s commitment to Pope Francis’ call to promote peace in the world, especially in the Taiwan Strait. 

After taking office on May 20, Taiwan’s new president, Lai Ching-te, echoed that call for peace, urging China to “stop intimidating Taiwan politically and militarily,” Lee said.

“President Lai also constantly called for dialogue over confrontation, exchange over containment, and peaceful engagement with the legal government chosen by Taiwanese people,” he added.

Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China, has maintained formal diplomatic relations with the Holy See since 1942. The Vatican does not have diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. 

The ambassador noted that the embassy organized a “novena for peace” in response to Pope Francis’ call for peace.

Bishop Norbert Pu of Taiwan spoke to CNA at the event about the significance of the Vatican’s recognition for Taiwanese Catholics. 

“We hope we can always maintain this formal and good relationship with the Vatican. Because for Taiwan, this is very important. We hope that the world will see this because Taiwan is a democratic and free country, respected by other nations,” Pu said.

Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga, the archbishop of Bangui in the Central African Republic, also spoke at the event, giving thanks for Taiwan’s donation of a computer classroom at the Major Seminary of St. Mark.

Lee highlighted how Taiwan has “provided humanitarian assistance and carried out concrete projects to help many countries.”

“The Taiwan Embassy has joined forces with several religious congregations this year to deliver humanitarian assistance to those in need,” he said.

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