Transparency means more than just releasing annual financial reports and balance sheets, Bishop Nunzio Galantino, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, told Vatican-accredited reporters.
Transparency also means showing “the quality of what is safeguarded. This is a step forward,” he said on 12th September inside the sumptuously frescoed Sala Vasari, just one of dozens of rooms in the Vatican-owned Palazzo della Cancelleria that were specially opened to reporters for a brief tour.
Bishop Galantino told reporters that the administration of these assets “means to take care of them and make available (their) culture, beauty, history and wonder.” APSA decided to make the Palazzo della Cancelleria available to the press for a special tour since the massive Renaissance building is normally only open to the public for special events or talks or by special request.
It houses several Vatican tribunals: the Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican tribunal dealing with matters of conscience, the sacrament of reconciliation and indulgences; the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, which mainly deals with appeals filed in marriage annulment cases; and the Vatican’s highest tribunal, known as the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature.
Picture: Walkways are seen in this photo taken outside the Palazzo della Cancelleria, a Vatican-owned building, which houses several Vatican tribunals in Rome, 12th September 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)