Vatican City, 06 October, 2021 / 8:50 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Francis has created a new foundation offering financial support to Catholic hospitals, the Vatican announced on Wednesday.
The pope established the foundation with a decree called a chirograph, the Holy See press office said on Oct. 6.
The document, dated Sept. 29, said that the pope had agreed to create the foundation for Catholic healthcare -- known in Italian as the Fondazione per la Sanità Cattolica -- in response to requests for “direct intervention” by the Vatican to help Catholic institutions.
Vatican News reported that the pope took the step in “the light of financial difficulties faced by a number of Catholic health facilities run by religious orders, who are sometimes forced to sell them.”
The decree explained that the new foundation would operate under the Holy See’s sovereign authority and as an entity of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), the Vatican’s treasury and sovereign wealth manager.