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155 Law & Just. - Christian L. Rev. 137 (2005)
The Maintenance of Clergy in the Italian Catholic Church

handle is hein.journals/ljusclr155 and id is 55 raw text is: THE MAINTENANCE OF
CLERGY IN THE ITALIAN
CATHOLIC CHURCH
CRISTIANA CIANITTO
Today's system of maintenance of the clergy is the result of a long historical and
juridical process, the final phase of which can be found in the 1960's. Paragraph
20 of the Presbyterorum Ordinis decree, which was proclaimed at the end of
Vatican Council II, required the abolition of the old beneficial system, or at least its
radical reform. It was recommended that diocesan institutions be created in order
to provide the clergy with maintenance through managing the old beneficial
possessions. The Church wanted to go back to the origins, to the indistinct property
mass characteristic of the ancient Christian communities, in order to leave all
clerics free to exercise their own ministry without any worry about their personal
finances.
These proposals of the Council were only finally accomplished with the bringing
into force of the new Code of Canon Law in 1983 and with the revision of the
Concordat with the Italian State in 1984.
The new system consequently is set out in the L. 222/1985, in which the
modifications of the Concordat are put into effect. This not only takes note of the
reform which occurred inside the canonical environment, with the new Code of
1983, but also integrates and introduces innovations into canonical discipline by
creating financing channels not foreseen by reform of the codes and further
organisms unknown to the counciliar project, too.
Sources of money for maintenance of the clergy
The sources for the maintenance are three:
Incomes deriving from the administration of ex-beneficial properties;
8%. Irpefl assignments; (i.e. 8 out of a thousand).
Deducible offers.
The Irpef is the Italian income tax that all Italians have to pay if they are liable to taxation and if they
earn more than a certain minimum income.

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