Aboard the papal plane, 20 August, 2022 / 4:30 pm (ACI Africa).
The Vatican has signed an agreement with the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe on the recognition of the Catholic Church and her ecclesiastical institutions as a “juridical personality” in the African Island country.
In a Tuesday, August 16 press release by the Holy See press office, the agreement which happened on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, marked on Monday, August 15, took place in the “meeting room” of the Foreign Ministry in São Tomé.
In the press release, the leadership of the Holy See says that the agreement that is “drawn up in Italian and Portuguese and composed of 28 articles will come into force with the exchange of the instruments of ratification”.
"The agreement establishes the recognition of the juridical personality of the Catholic Church and ecclesiastical institutions and defines the juridical framework of the relations between the Church and the State," the leadership of the Holy See says in the August 16 press release.
Signed on August 15, the Vatican indicates that "the agreement further consolidates the bonds of friendship and collaboration existing between the two parties, which, while safeguarding their own independence and autonomy, undertake to collaborate for the spiritual and material well-being of the human person, thus as for the promotion of the common good."
