Some interesting random facts
about Vatican activities in 2011
VATICAN CITY, August 27, 2012 – "The activity of the Holy See" is the title of a weighty volume that year after year offers an account of the actions undertaken by the Pope, the Roman curia, and other Vatican offices.
It is an "unofficial publication," it says on the title page, but it is compiled by the Secretariat of State, and contains a substantial amount of information and not a few curiosities, often unpublished elsewhere.
The latest edition on the activities in 2011, was published at the end of July by Libreria Editrice Vaticana. It is 1,366 pages long, and costs 80 euro.
Here are some of the interesting things we learn from it:
– The activities of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith included the re-publication in the November 30, 2011 issue of
L'Osservatore Romano of a text by then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger published in a 1988 volume "On the pastoral care of the divorced and remarried."
It is explained that the re-publication was intended to "draw the attention of pastors" to that "unfortunately little known" book which reiterates the traditional Catholic position on the topic, and which confirms among other things, that the practice of the Orthodox Churches of allowing u,nder certain conditions, a second and third marriage after the failure of the first remains "unacceptable for doctrinal reasons" to the Catholic Church.
– Last year, the disciplinary office of the CDF opened 599 new procedures, 440 of them concerning
delicta graviora (serious offenses), and that the most numerous of these, 404 to be exact, are cases of abuse perpetrated by clergy against minors.
The CDF underscores that "in the year 2011, with respect to the year 2010, the disciplinary office received fewer notifications," but that nonetheless "with respect to previous years (for example, the period of 2005–2009) the number of cases has risen considerably."
In this respect, the CDF recommended to the Pope the dismissal from the clerical state of 125 priests, and for another 135 to ber dispenses from priestly obligations.
[Both actions laicize the priests concerned.]
– The Congregation for the Clergy, which handles canonical cases ivnolving priests other than for
delicta graviora, issued 540 certifications of dispensation from priestly obligations for 49 diocesan deacons, 26 religious deacons, 280 secular priests, and 185 religious.
– The Congregation for Divine Worship, in addition to its regular functions, says "it is closely following the proposal of 'thematic homilies', in conjunction with the CDF and the cCngregation for the Clergy," evidently with the intention of improving the content of preaching at Masses.
– The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples granted, through the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith, more than $75 million in aid to dioceses in mission territory, compared to %85 million in 2010.
- The Congregation for religious orders authorized the entrance into consecrated life of five married persons whose spouses were still alive.
– The Congregation for Catholic Education is preparing a document on the use of the internet in priestly formation.
– The apostolic penitentiary granted 1,315 indulgences,with Germany, Martin Luther's homeland, benefiting most (329), followed by Taly (260).
– The Roman Rota, whose jurisprudence is the model for all the ecclesiastical tribunals of the world, issued 179 definitive verdicts in cases seeking matrimonial nullification. Most of the verdicts (94) rejected the requests, whereas in 2010, 93 out of 175 requests for nullification were granted.
– The Pontifical Council Cor Unum directly distributed, in the name of the Pope, $1.8 million dollars on behalf of populations struck by disaster, and $2.3 million in support of projects of human and Christian development.
Moreover, two foundations funded by the dicastery, the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel and Populorum Progressio for Latin America, respectively contributed $1.86 million and $2.1 million to finance humanitarian projects on those continents.
– The Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts continues in its work to revise some portions of the code of canon law, regarding questions of penal law (an area in which the Council says work is particularly advanced), procedural law, matrimonial law, and patrimonial law, and relating the code of the Latin Church to that of the Eastern Churches.
– 1,321 entrance permits were granted for the Vatican secret archive to scholars from 54 countries. The most numerous were the Italians (673), followed by scholars from Spain and Germany (102 each), the United States and France (64 each), Britain (30), Poland (35). Scholars also came from Azerbaijan, China, Syria, Togo, Turkey.
None from Israel.
– Vatican Radio has 352 employees, 307 of them laypeople. They account for more than 12 percent of all of the 2,832 employees of the Holy See.
– The office of papal charities – with 10 employees and 17 external calligraphers – which replies to some 7,000 letters each year from Christians and members of other religions requesting aid for personal needs,dispensed "with discretion" and "on a daily basis," in the name of the Pope, "around 900,000 euro" in 2011, compared to about 1 million euro in 2010.
The sum was completely covered by contributions received from tghe faithful who request parchments with which the Pope grants an apostolic blessing to individuals. In 2011, 120,000 parchments werre released by the Office of Papal Charities (115,000 in 2010), plus another 108,00 distributed through various affiliates (112,000 in 2010).
– Even as the CDF, through an international commission of inquiry headed by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, is examining the claimed Marian apparitions in Medjugorje, the Pontifical Academy of the Immaculate reports it has received many requests from prayer groups that "born from Medjugorje, have
no point of reference in order to channel the grace of conversion obtained in that blessed place." [
Why can they not just 'channel the grace' into devotion to Mary, supported by acts of faith, hope and charity, without linking her to any one place?]
– As of December 31, 2011, there were 594 persons in possession of Vatican citizenship: 71 cardinals, 307 ecclesiastics with diplomatic status, 51 other ecclesiastics, one religious sister, 109 Swiss guards, 55 other laypeople.
[And the Pope makes 595????]
Moreover, 238 persons were authorized to reside in Vatican City–State while retaining their citizenship of origin, and another 3,500 were resident in extraterritorial or tax–exempt properties of the Vatican.
– In 2011, the Vatican police levied 96 fines for violations of traffic regulations within thje pocket-size State. At the same time, the police claim that after "thorough police activity," they have 'stamped out' the phenomenon of pickpockets which had been "widespread in the Vatican museums, but especially in St. Peter's Basilica and t. Peter's Square."
– Also last year, "the Vatican museums entered the highly exclusive club of the 'over five million' (visitors a year), thanks to measures established by the responsible official, Mons. Paolo Nicolini."
[One must note that Nicolini is the 'enemy' denounced by Mons. Carlo Vigano in his infamous letters as having left the Pntifical Lateran University after incurring financial shortfalls for which he was personally responsible, and allegedly continuing his questionable activities at the Vatican Museums. Vigano's attack was even more astounding because the main income for the Vatican Governatorate for which he worked comes precisely from the Vatican Museums, which has registered increasingly greatere revenues every year under Nicolini.]
Moreover, thanks to the license of definitive exportation granted by the Italian ministry of cultural heritage, the Vatican museums were able to acquire the Francesco Pagano collection donated by his heirs in 1998, comprising 94 objects dating to the fourth century B.C. of the Roman era.
In 2011, the editorial activity of the museums was taken over by a new office of publications, with the new imprint Edizione Musei Vaticani. In 2009, the Museums started the Bookshop in collaboration with Opera Laboratori Fiorentini SpA.
- In 2011, Vatican City state consumed 32 million kWh of electricity, 4.5 million for the extraterritorial zones, and 1.8 million for the pontifical villas. Vatican central heating required about 1,225,000 cubic meters of methane gas, provided by the Italian firms ACEA, Italgas, and the Gas & Power division of ENI.
– The Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo has a collection of meteorites that in 2011 was expanded with new elements, "including a slab of 21 grams of rare and primitive acondrite NWA 6901" procured from "an anonymous German provider."
– Among the curiosities reported: A happy conclusion to the invasion of porcupines into the Catacomba dei Giordani in Rome from the park of Villa Ada above it. And that "the scourge of the red weevil" has infested one of the four imposing palm trees at the portico of the papal basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls, but "with the assistance of a specialized company ,the battle is underway to save it from complete desiccation."
The book does not contain any information about the financial agencies of the Holy See - APSA, IOR, or AIF (about the latter, only that 170 square meters of the mezzanine of the Palazzo San Carlo within Vatican City–State were rneovated to provide its offices).
But detailed information about the 2011 activities of these agencies can be found in the appendices to the Moneyval report on the Vatican published online last month.