FUND FOR CULT AND FUND FOR RELIGION AND CHARITY FOR THE CITY OF ROME. - The expression has precedents in Austrian legislation; in fact, in Austria there was a religion fund that disbursed its resources in favor of religion and worship. In Italy, and first in the Kingdom of Sardinia, with the new separatist ecclesiastical policy begun with the suppression of the Society of Jesus and of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart in 1848, and with the abolition of tithes to the clergy in Sardinia in 1851, no cultic duties were created or entrusted to administrations separate from those of the finances of the State, but the property of the Society of Jesus was given to the latter; also in other European countries and at different times the former ecclesiastical properties were confiscated by the State. Instead, in 1855, again in the Kingdom of Sardinia, as the separatist conception was refined in its formal aspect, with the suppression of certain religious orders, the Chapters of certain collegiate churches and certain simple benefices, an Ecclesiastical Fund was first instituted and to it were devolved in administration the properties of the suppressed bodies. With the progressive unification
FONDO PER IL CULTO E FONDO DI RELIGIONE
of the Kingdom of Italy and with the extension to the new provinces (Umbria, Marche, Neapolitan provinces) of the suppressive laws, the Ecclesiastical Fund came into possession of a huge income derived in large part from real property; except in Sicily, where the ecclesiastical bodies were not suppressed but obliged to grant their rural properties in emphyteusis. The Ecclesiastical Fund had an existence distinct and independent from the finances of the State: it was constituted by a patrimonial mass and was an administration in the hands of a body created by the State. In 1862 the real estate of the Fund was transferred to the State domain, and in exchange for the transfer the government registered in favor of the Fund a five per cent income on the public debt, equal to the income of the properties that passed to the domain. The Fund was then suppressed by the law of 7 July 1866 and replaced by the Fondo per il culto, which collected the revenues deriving from the suppressions carried out throughout the Kingdom by this law and by the subsequent ones of 15 Aug. 1867 and 19 June 1873, with the exception of: ecclesiastical properties suppressed in the city of Rome, for which the Fondo di religione e beneficenza della città di Roma was instituted.
The task of the Fondo per il culto has been to satisfy all the charges, including toward third parties, already borne by the suppressed bodies, to which it succeeded in the properties; those generally weighing on the State budget for the expenses of Catholic worship, as well as the task, which constitutes its most important function, of settling and paying the supplements of congrua to the clergy (v. CONGRUA). Now that the tasks for the settlement of the rights of third parties over the patrimonies of the suppressed bodies, of the rights of reclamation, of release, of reversibility, have been exhausted, as well as those added later for the settlement of the allowances owed to the municipalities on the revenues deriving from the suppressed religious houses; and once the devolutions in favor of the municipalities on the revenues of the suppressed "chiese ricettizie" and local curacies have been almost completed; the functions of the Fondo per il culto have instead increased with regard to the settlements of the congruas and the other allowances to the clergy.
This complex of properties has had its own patrimonial autonomy, because it was not confused with the patrimony of the State and had from the laws a determined and special destination. The administrative body was created and organized by the State. Thus both the Ecclesiastical Fund and the Fondo per il culto had a state organ with autonomy of functions placed in charge of the administration of the body. But this autonomy of functions gradually diminished, and the general direction of the Fondo per il culto came to be entirely placed on the same footing as the other administrations of the State, while always respecting the autonomy of the administered patrimony, legally represented in acts and in court by its own director general. The law of 14 Apr. 1927 no. 514 reaffirmed the intangibility of the patrimony and changed its name to Amministrazione generale, in order to emphasize its character as a state administration, yes, but one standing by itself. Finally, following the Lateran Concordat of 1929, by the law of 27 May 1929 no. 848, the administration of the Fondo per il culto and of the other patrimonies united with it was concentrated in the Ministry of Justice and of Worship Affairs, constituting a general direction of that Ministry, and the minister became its head and representative. The service has now passed from the Ministry of Justice to that of the Interior. This patrimonial fund, deriving from the suppressed ecclesiastical bodies, preserves its autonomy and its legal entity, but is thus administered no longer by a state organ standing by itself, but by an organ of the central power. And therefore, it cannot be asserted that there is in Italy a budget of cults, even though, in substance, the budget of the Fondo per il culto is largely supplemented by the financial resources of the State.
The Fondo per il culto has its own board of administration composed of ten members, five of whom are designated by the ecclesiastical authority, in accordance with the Lateran Concordat. It has consultative functions with non-binding opinion, in certain matters, and deliberative functions on complaints concerning the settlements of the supplements of congrua and of the other allowances owed to the clergy. The said board is also common to other patrimonies that are likewise now administered by the same general direction, except for the Fondo di religione e di beneficenza per la città di Roma, which has its own board of administration.
It should not be believed that with the passage of the former ecclesiastical real estate to the domain, the Fondo per il culto received in exchange an income realistically corresponding. In fact, the conversion of the real properties into public income was made not on the basis of the real income of the properties or the price for which they were sold, but on the basis of the income already declared by the bodies before the suppression for the purposes of the mortmain tax; the domain furthermore levied on the former ecclesiastical patrimony an extraordinary tax of thirty per cent, and therefore the Fondo per il culto received only seventy per cent of that income; the income of the State was then converted from the original five per cent to 3.50 per cent; the law of 7 July 1866, no. 3036 assigned to the municipalities of the Kingdom a quarter of the income of the corporations suppressed in the territory of that municipality and the other three quarters to the State; there was furthermore surrendered in favor of the Cassa nazionale di previdenza per la invalidità e vecchiaia the annual income of more than one hundred thousand lire, another one hundred thousand lire were surrendered in favor of third parties for recognized rights of reversibility over the ecclesiastical patrimony; on the whole, as a result of these reductions and other losses suffered, the patrimonial revenues of the body were reduced to a little more than 12 million annually, as they appear from the 1921-22 budget. Today, in the 1950-51 budget, they are 20,750,000 lire.
Part of the non-revenue-producing patrimony of the Fondo per il culto are the churches and rectories formerly belonging to the suppressed ecclesiastical bodies, except those that are parish seats and that are considered to belong to the parish body to which they are annexed. There are about three thousand in the entire territory of the State. If they are and remain open for worship, the Fondo per il culto must bear the expenses of their officiation. The said churches, by virtue of the Concordat, may request recognition of legal personality with the assignment of an endowment.
The ordinary revenues of the Fund for Worship are supplemented by a contribution charged to the State corresponding to the amount of the abolished quota di concorso (a levy that the Fund for Worship previously collected for all conserved ecclesiastical moral bodies, for the purpose of equalizing the differing incomes among those bodies themselves). Since its revenues are not sufficient to pay the salary supplements (supplementi di congrua) to parish priests and the mensa supplements to bishops, together with the increased allowances granted by subsequent measures, all these increased allowances are charged to the State, and likewise the allowances owed to the clergy of the former Austrian provinces. But it would probably constitute an administrative simplification to agree between the Italian government and the Holy See on the payment of a lump sum in favor of the entire Italian clergy receiving a congrua; thus this branch of the administration, as regards the settlement of the salary supplements to the clergy, could be abolished.
As a result of the Lateran Concordat, the management of the enterprise is today increased because it administers, with separate budgets, four patrimonies: its own, originally that of the Fund for Worship; that of the Fund of Beneficence and Religion of the city of Rome; that of the former General Economates of vacant benefices, combined with that of the Funds of Religion of the former Austrian provinces.
From the expenditure estimate of the Ministry of the Interior for the financial year 1950-51 (draft laws and reports 1948-50 to the Senate of the Republic, no. 852, App. no. 1, p. 59 ff.: Estimate of the Administration of the Fund for Worship; p. 77: Estimate of the Fund of Beneficence and Religion in the city of Rome; p. 93: Estimate of the Patrimonies combined ex economal) it emerges, for all three administrations, that the contribution of the Treasury to their budgets is always greater, and sometimes by many millions, than the sums disbursed for expenses ordered by laws, decrees, for worship, instruction, and charity. This is why the administrative simplification of these managements should be studied.
II. The Fund of religion and charity of the city of Rome originated from the assignment of the property of certain corporations and ecclesiastical bodies suppressed in the city of Rome, following the extension to the Roman provinces of the suppressive laws in force in the other regions of the Kingdom, by the law of 19 June 1873. In 1885 this Fund was given in administration to the General Directorate of the Fund for Worship. This was confirmed in 1888 and regulated by the regulation of 5 Jan. 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 concentrated in the Ministry of the Interior, with distinct management and a separate budget, at the General Directorate of the Fund for Worship; it preserves its own purpose, has its own board of administration, whose members are appointed half by the Italian government and half by the ecclesiastical authority.
The preventive budget and the annual account are submitted for the approval of Parliament together with those of the Ministry of the Interior; the provisions governing the administrations of the State are applicable to it. The Fund of religion has preserved, like the Fund for Worship, its original character of an autonomous legal entity, with its own patrimony and budget and its own purposes. The patrimonial revenues of the entity, after the conversion of its real property, consist for the most part of public debt, ground rents, quit-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 larger allowances granted to the clergy. The churches and rectories that formerly belonged to the monastic associations or to other ecclesiastical bodies suppressed in the city of Rome are kept open for worship by it. Its purposes are analogous to those of the Fund for Worship, within the limits of the city; but also of religion and charity; in Rome a greater number of ecclesiastical bodies has been preserved and even the disbursement of revenues is broader in its purpose; allowances were charged to it in favor of the Congregation of Charity, of the Pious Institute of S. Spirito for the united hospitals, and of the Institute for the Blind of S. Alessio. The administration exercises the powers of supervision over the ecclesiastical patrimony of Rome, elsewhere reserved, before the Concordat, to the general economates of vacant benefices, and today to the prefectures.
III. Following the treaty of S. Germano in relations with Austria and the treaty of Rapallo and the pact of Rome in relations with Yugoslavia, there passed to Italy the property of the funds constituted in those territories with the property of the suppressed ecclesiastical bodies that came to be included within the new frontiers of Italy: these are urban properties in various cities and the forest of Tarvisio. By arts. 18-19-20 of the law of 27 May 1929 no. 848 they form a single patrimony with that of the general economates and of the vacant benefices, and this single patrimony is administered, with distinct management and separate budgets, by the general directorate of the fund for worship; the preventive and final budgets are submitted for the approval of Parliament. This fund has lost its original purpose of contributing to the payment of the supplements of congrua to the clergy, since the sole destination given to these combined revenues is to assist particularly meritorious and needy clergy and to promote generic purposes of worship, charity and instruction. A possible settlement of relations with Yugoslavia after the last war is in the process of being arranged.
Bibliography5 works
Giuseppe Forchelli