FUND FOR CULT AND FUND FOR RELIGION AND CHARITY FOR THE CITY OF ROME. — The phrase has precedents in Austrian legislation; in Austria, in fact, there was a religion fund which disbursed its means in favour of religion and worship. In Italy, and initially in the Kingdom of Sardinia, with the new ecclesiastical policy separated initially by the suppression of the Society of Jesus and the Dames of the Sacred Heart in 1848, and by the abolition of tithes to the clergy in Sardinia in 1851, no separate administrative bodies were created for cultural tasks distinct from the financial administration of the State; instead, the goods of the Society of Jesus were assigned to the State. In other European countries at different times, ex-ecclesiastical goods were also confiscated by the State. However, in 1855, still within the Kingdom of Sardinia, as the concept of separation was refined in its formal aspect, with the suppression of some religious orders, the chapters of some collegiate churches, and certain benefices, the State first established an ecclesiastical fund (Cassa ecclesiastica) and then transferred to its administration the goods of the suppressed entities. With the progressive unification of the Kingdom of Italy and the extension of the suppressive laws to the new provinces (Umbria, the Marches, Neapolitan provinces), the ecclesiastical fund came into possession of substantial income, largely derived from stable assets; except in Sicily, where ecclesiastical entities were not suppressed but were obliged to merge their rural properties into unified entities.
The ecclesiastical fund had a distinct and independent existence from the State’s finances: it consisted of a patrimonial mass and was administered by an organ created by the State. In 1862, the immovable property of the ecclesiastical fund was confiscated by the State’s demesne, and in exchange for this transfer, the government inscribed in favour of the fund a 5% annuity on the public debt, equal to the yield of the goods transferred to the demesne. The ecclesiastical fund was then suppressed by the law of 7 July 1866 and replaced by the Fund for Cult (Fondo per il culto), which collected the revenues deriving from suppressions carried out throughout the Kingdom by this law and subsequent ones (15 Aug. 1867 and 19 June 1873), with the exception of the ecclesiastical goods suppressed in the city of Rome, for which the Fund for Religion and Charity for the City of Rome was established.
The task of the Fund for Cult was to meet all obligations, even towards third parties, previously chargeable to the suppressed entities, of which it took over the goods; those obligations generally chargeable to the State budget for Catholic worship expenses; and, most importantly, the task of liquidating and paying the supplements to the clergy’s congrua (v. CONGRUA). Now that the tasks related to the liquidation of third-party rights over the assets of suppressed entities, rights of claim, release, and revocability have been exhausted—along with those added later for the liquidation of allowances due to municipalities from the revenues of suppressed religious houses—and nearly all devolutions to municipalities of the revenues from suppressed receptive churches and local curacies have been completed, the functions of the Fund for Cult have instead increased regarding the liquidation of congrua supplements and other allowances due to the clergy.
This complex of assets has had its own patrimonial autonomy, as it was not merged with the State’s patrimony and was assigned a specific and special destination by law. The administrative body was created and organised by the State. Both the ecclesiastical fund and the Fund for Cult had a state organ with functional autonomy entrusted with the administration of the entity. However, this functional autonomy gradually diminished, and the general directorate of the Fund for Cult came to be entirely assimilated into other state administrations, even while preserving the autonomy of the administrative patrimony, which is legally represented in acts and in court by its own general director. The law of 14 Apr. 1927, no. 514 reaffirmed the inviolability of the patrimony and changed its name to General Administration, to confirm its character as a state administration, albeit distinct. Finally, following the Lateran Concordat of 1929, by the law of 27 May 1929, no. 843, the administration of the Fund for Cult and of the other assets united to it was concentrated in the Ministry of Justice and Worship Affairs, forming a general directorate of that Ministry, of which the minister became the holder and representative. The service has since passed from the Ministry of Justice to that of the Interior. This patrimonial fund, deriving from suppressed ecclesiastical entities, retains its autonomy and legal entity, but is now administered not by a distinct state organ, but by an organ of the central power. Hence, it cannot be affirmed that there exists in Italy a budget for cults, even though the budget of the Fund for Cult is substantially integrated by financial means from the State.
The Fund for Cult has its own administrative council composed of ten members, five of whom are appointed by the ecclesiastical authority, in accordance with the Lateran Concordat. It has advisory functions with non-binding opinions in certain matters, and deliberative functions regarding appeals concerning the liquidation of supplements to the clergy’s congrua and other allowances due to the clergy. This council is shared with other assets now administered by the same general directorate, except for the Fund for Religion and Charity for the City of Rome, which has its own administrative council.
It should not be believed that, with the transfer of ex-ecclesiastical immovable property to the demesne, the Fund for Cult received in exchange an annuity realistically corresponding to the value of those goods. Indeed, the conversion of immovable property into public annuities was not based on the actual income of the properties or on the price for which they were sold, but on the income declared by the entities before suppression for the purposes of the mortmain tax; moreover, the demesne levied an extraordinary 30% tax on the ex-ecclesiastical patrimony, so that the Fund for Cult received only 70% of the annuity itself. The State annuity was then reduced from the original 5% to 3.50%. The law of 7 July 1866, no. 303 assigned one quarter of the annuity of suppressed corporations in the territory of each municipality to the municipalities of the Kingdom, and the remaining three quarters to the State; moreover, an annual annuity of more than 100,000 lire was ceded to the National Pension Fund for Disability and Old Age, and other sums were ceded to third parties for recognised rights of revocability over ecclesiastical patrimony. Overall, due to these reductions and other losses sustained, the patrimonial revenues of the entity were reduced to just over 12 million lire annually, as shown in the 1927-24 budget. Today, in the 1950-51 budget, they amount to 30,730,000 lire.
Part of the non-revenue-generating patrimony of the Fund for Cult consists of churches and rectories formerly belonging to suppressed ecclesiastical entities, with the exception of those that are parish seats and are considered part of the parish entity to which they are attached. There are about three thousand such churches throughout the State’s territory. If they remain open for worship, the Fund for Cult must bear the costs of their upkeep. By virtue of the Concordat, these churches may request recognition of legal personality with the assignment of an endowment.
The ordinary revenues of the Fondo per il culto are supplemented by a contribution from the State equal to the amount of the abolished quota of concorso (a tax which the Fondo per il culto formerly received from all ecclesiastical moral entities conserved for the purpose of equalizing the diverse incomes among these entities). Since its revenues are insufficient to cover the supplements of congrua to parish priests and those of mensa to bishops, the greater allowances granted by subsequent provisions are all borne by the State, as are the allowances due to the clergy of the ex-auristic provinces. However, it might well prove administratively simpler if an agreement were reached between the Italian government and the Holy See for the payment of a lump sum in favour of all congruated Italian clergy; in this way, this branch of administration, as regards the liquidation of supplements of congrua to the clergy, could be abolished.
As a result of the Lateran Concordat, the administration of the estate has now been expanded, since it administers, with separate accounts, four patrimonies: that originally belonging to the Fondo per il culto; that of the Fondo di beneficenza e religione of the city of Rome; that of the former General Economati of vacant benefices, united with that of the Fondi di religione of the ex-auristic provinces.
From the state of expenditure estimates of the Ministry of the Interior for the financial year 1950-51 (bills and reports 1948-50 to the Senate of the Republic, no. 852, App. no. 1, p. 59 ff.: State of expenditure estimates of the Administration of the Fondo per il culto; p. 77; State of expenditure estimates of the Fondo di beneficenza e di religione in the city of Rome; p. 93; State of expenditure estimates of the Patrimonio riuniti ex-economali) it appears that, for all three administrations, the Treasury’s contribution to their budgets is always greater, and sometimes by many millions, than the sums disbursed for expenses mandated by laws, decrees, on worship, education, and charity. This is why the question of administrative simplification should be studied.
II. The Fondo di religione e di beneficenza of Rome originated from the assignment of the assets of certain corporations and ecclesiastical entities in the city of Rome, following the extension to the Roman provinces of the eversive laws in force in the other regions of the Kingdom, by the law of 19 June 1873. In 1885 this Fondo was placed under the administration of the Direzione generale del Fondo per il culto. This was confirmed in 1888 and regulated by the regulation of 5 January 1888 no. 5165; after the Lateran Concordat, by the law of 27 May 1929 no. 848, arts. 19-20, its administration, as has been said, was centralized in the Ministry of the Interior, with separate management and a separate budget, under the Direzione generale del Fondo per il culto; it retains its own purpose, has its own administrative council, whose members are appointed half by the Italian government and half by the ecclesiastical authority.
The budget estimates and the annual report are submitted for approval to Parliament together with those of the Ministry of the Interior; the provisions governing State administrations apply to II. The Fondo di religione has retained, like the Fondo per il culto, its original character as an autonomous legal entity, with its own patrimony and budget for its own purposes. The patrimonial revenues of the entity, after the conversion of real estate, consist largely of public annuities, rents, and a few incomes from buildings not yet sold. They are supplemented by an extraordinary contribution from the State for the payment of the greater allowances granted to the clergy. The churches and rectories formerly belonging to monastic associations or other ecclesiastical entities suppressed in the city of Rome are kept open for worship by II. Its purposes are analogous to those of the Fondo per il culto, within the limits of the city; but also for religion and charity; in Rome a greater number of ecclesiastical entities have been preserved and the economy of this Fondo is broader in its purposes; allowances were placed at its charge in favour of the Congregazione di carità, the Pio Istituto di S. Spirito e ospedali riuniti, and the Istituto dei ciechi di S. Alessio. The administration exercises powers of supervision over the ecclesiastical patrimony of Rome, elsewhere reserved, before the Concordat, to the General Economati of vacant benefices, and today to the prefectures.
III. Following the Treaty of Saint-Germain with Austria and the Treaty of Rapallo and the Pact of Rome with Yugoslavia, the properties of the funds constituted in those territories with the assets of suppressed ecclesiastical entities that came to be included within the new Italian borders passed to Italy: these consist of urban real estate in various cities and the Tarvisio forest. By arts. 18-19-20 of the law of 27 May 1929 no. 848 they form a first triad united with that of the General Economati of vacant benefices, and this unified patrimony is administered, with separate management and a separate budget, by the Direzione generale del Fondo per il culto; the budget is subject to parliamentary approval. This fund has lost its original purpose of contributing to the payment of supplements of congrua to the clergy, since these combined revenues have been given the single destination of assisting particularly deserving and needy clergy and promoting general purposes of worship, charity, and education. Any regulation of relations with Yugoslavia following the last war is in the course of being settled.