Catholic Church to return almost a thousand assets wrongfully registered under its name

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Spain’s Catholic Church Reports 220 Sexual Abuse Cases To Vatican City. image: Wikipedia

After a meeting with President Sánchez, the Catholic Church has agreed to return almost a thousand assets that were wrongfully registered under its name between 1998 and 2015.
On Monday, January 24, the Spanish government and the Episcopal Conference came to the agreement that the Catholic Church would return almost a thousand assets that had been wrongfully registered under its name between 1998 and 2015. The meeting took place between President Pedro Sánchez and the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Juan José Omella.
At least 3% of the approximately 35,000 property assets that the Church formally registered under its name did not actually belong to it, but this was permitted due to the reform of the Mortgage Law implemented by the ex-president José María Aznar.
“The analysis has revealed a collection of assets that the Church considers as belonging to a third party, or as having unclear ownership,” said the official statement. There are almost a thousand such assets, but sources from the Ministry of the Presidency, led by Félix Bolaños, later confirmed that the list does not include any large temples.
This is the first agreement mutually reached by the two institutions. The topic has been talked about for some time: it was one of Sánchez’s electoral promises in 2020, and the PSOE had long been demanding a solution to the conflict over the Church’s assets.
In 1998, the Mortgage Law was reformed under the government of José María Aznar, allowing the Church to register buildings, apartments and other properties with only a single certification until 2015, when another reform put an end to this possibility.
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Written by

Tamsin Brown

Originally from London, Tamsin is based in Malaga and is a local reporter for the Euro Weekly News covering Spanish and international news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

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