• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
One of the many frescoed rooms is seen in this photograph taken inside the Palazzo della Cancelleria, a Vatican-owned building, which houses several Vatican tribunals in Rome, Sept. 12, 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

Vatican real estate office opens palace to media in show of transparency

September 15, 2023
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Feature, News, Vatican, World News

ROME (CNS) — 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 Sept. 12 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.

Walkways are seen in this photo taken outside the Palazzo della Cancelleria, a Vatican-owned building, which houses several Vatican tribunals in Rome, Sept. 12, 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

The bishop’s office, which is known by its Italian acronym, APSA, controls most of the Vatican’s investment portfolio, including real estate. APSA directly administers 4,072 properties, which include churches, Vatican office buildings, residences for Vatican officials and apartments rented to Vatican employees, commercial office space and farmland, it said in its 2022 annual report.

Only 19 percent of the property is rented on the open market, it said, while 12 percent is rented at reduced rates to employees or retired employees; the rest is used by Vatican offices or religious orders.

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.

Three experts in architecture and engineering, who were part of the building’s four-year restoration several years ago, took turns pointing out many of the rooms’ special features and history.

It is the first large building in Rome built from the ground up in the early Renaissance with work starting in 1484. It was made to be the residence of Cardinal Raffaele Riario, who was camerlengo or chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church and nephew of Pope Sixtus IV.

Rooms are filled with frescoes, such as the Sala Vasari, which was decorated by Giorgio Vasari.

One of the guides, Mauro Tomassini, said stone was repurposed from the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the thermal Baths of Diocletian as Cardinal Riario loved the style of Imperial Rome.

It was built atop the very early Christian-era Basilica of San Lorenzo in Damaso, which was razed for the new building. The fourth-century foundation walls can still be seen underground as well as a small pile of human bones nearby, which the guides said, were evidence that the area had also been used as a cemetery in the early centuries. A new minor basilica was built within the palazzo complex later.

Read More Vatican News

Papal commission incorporates global feedback in safeguarding guidelines

God has the same love for all, pope says at Angelus

Take leap of faith and dare to love your family, those in need, pope says

Inside, outside: Synod to focus on the church and its role in the world

France’s reactions to pope’s upcoming visit are mixed; some see ‘Fratelli Tutti’ momentum

Vatican astronomer helps NASA in historic mission to study asteroid

Copyright © 2023 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Carol Glatz

Catholic News Service is a leading agency for religious news. Its mission is to report fully, fairly and freely on the involvement of the church in the world today.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Three more pro-life activists convicted on federal charges for blockade at abortion clinic
  • Cardinal Dolan: Are Sunday Masses just too long?
  • St. Maria Goretti High School faces uncertain future after difficult decision by archdiocese
  • Archbishop Lori announces appointments, including three associate pastors
  • Bishop Strickland will not resign, but says he will respect Pope Francis’ authority if removed

| Latest Local News |

Radio Interview: Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage

St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore awarded $2 million VA grant

‘The Following of Christ’: The ‘hidden’ book that helped make Mother Seton a saint

| Latest World News |

U.S. Border Patrol records sharp increase in arrests; situation of migrants in Mexico deteriorates

English police apologize to woman arrested for silently praying outside abortion facility

Papal commission incorporates global feedback in safeguarding guidelines

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Question Corner: Does insufficient faith keep us from being healed?
  • U.S. Border Patrol records sharp increase in arrests; situation of migrants in Mexico deteriorates
  • English police apologize to woman arrested for silently praying outside abortion facility
  • Papal commission incorporates global feedback in safeguarding guidelines
  • U.S. bishops, advocacy groups caution against government shutdown
  • Para compensar todos los reclamos de abuso: la Arquidiócesis considera reorganización
  • Radio Interview: Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage
  • God has the same love for all, pope says at Angelus
  • Take leap of faith and dare to love your family, those in need, pope says

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED