APOSTOLIC ALMSGIVING. - It is the palatine office that regulates the granting of papal subsidies and the rescripts of apostolic blessings. Its institution as a proper office seems to date back to Gregory X (1271-76); Alexander V with a bull of 1409, Innocent XII with an instruction of 1698, and Gregory XVI with the instructions and warnings of May 10, 1842, fully determined the charitable activity of the A. A.
The A. A., which drew its funds for alms from certain assignments paid by the Apostolic Chamber, the general lottery enterprise, the Apostolic Camera, and the Administration of Spoglia, distributed, as it still does, fixed and extraordinary alms to the poor, the elderly, the sick, widows, orphans, etc. It provided bread and foodstuffs, granted dowries, assisted those persecuted for the Christian faith, and extended its charitable action to public and private institutions.
The A. A. also had special provisions for the city of Rome and the Roman countryside. For this purpose, Rome was subdivided into eleven sections with ecclesiastical visitors, doctors, surgeons, and materials for the health care of the poor. For poor sick people in the Roman countryside, the A. A. also paid for transportation to city hospitals.
Leo XII in 1826 established a subsidies commission (which began its activity on January 1, 1827), which, based on information, even from home visits by special persons, granted the requested subsidy. Pius VIII again referred petitions for subsidies to the A. A. Gregory XVI, in 1831, prescribed, by a letter from his cardinal vicar, that parish priests should attach to such petitions a certificate concerning the applicant, so that the A. A. would grant subsidies only to truly deserving persons. This practice is still followed today.
The A. A. is also the office that grants apostolic blessings in the form of rescripts signed by monks and communes, which is essentially carried out by a special and suitable secretariat.