On October 19, the fourth study workshop was held at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome). This year it was dedicated to the economic budget in the field of the management of the Church's goods, organized by group CASE (Co-Responsibility, Administration and Economic Support of the Church), an initiative of which Professor Diego Zalbidea is a member. Experts and professors participated in the meeting .

Deepening the budget (cfr. can. 1284 § 3), as tool to project the mission statement of the Church in the future, is closely related to foreseeing needs, but above all to providing solutions. Professor Zalbidea insisted on this in his intervention. Professor Lorenzo D'Annibale of the ELIS Corporate School (Rome) also took part, and gave a preliminary synthesis on financial management and the strategic use of budget in the administration of assets. Professor Roberto Repole, professor at the Facoltà Teologica dell'Italia Settentrionale (Turin section), and president of the Associazione Teologica Italiana, spoke on the theological aspects of pastoral planning. The morning concluded with presentation by Dr. Margaret Doherty, Senior average Officer of the Press Office of lecture Episcopal England and Wales. "Credibility is an integral part of our lives, both from a staff and professional point of view" she said in her speech. He also presented clear examples of how the transparency that some church bodies have put in place has provided an opportunity to increase their credibility.

In the afternoon, some experts took part in a roundtable where they shared their practical experiences in the field of budget: Anastasio Gómez, Bursar of the Archdiocese of Toledo, Msgr. Antonio Interguglielmi, Deputy Director of the Office management assistant of the Vicariate of Rome, and Friar Hilario Provecho Álvarez O.P., Syndic of the Order of Preachers. The round table concluded with ample space for colloquium and joint reflection among the participants.
 

goal of the workshop

"Mercy is the main beam that supports the life of the Church. Everything in her pastoral action should be clothed by the tenderness with which she addresses believers; nothing in her advertisement and in her witness to the world can be devoid of mercy." These words of Pope Francis in the Bull of the Jubilee of Mercy summarize the goal of this workshop on the administration and governance of the temporal goods of the Church.

The budget cannot be a mere technical tool to analyze and make a forecast of what will happen, but it must also help the Church to go out and bring the Gospel to all the peripheries. "I prefer a Church that is bruised, wounded and stained by going out into the streets, rather than a Church that is sickened by the confinement and comfort of clinging to its own securities" (Evangelii Gaudium, n. 49). To foresee in order to provide, that is the core topic of budget in the Church.
From an interdisciplinary perspective, the experts approached a technical accounting instrument designed to manage the Church's resources, but which should respond to its evangelizing mission statement . Experiences, complementary perspectives and a discussion not conjunctural, but deep and theological, are the way to shed light on a capital topic in the canonical patrimonial law. The mission statement of the Church is no stranger to the management of its resources and the knowledge of its dynamics can be a sure path for the new evangelization.