The Vatican Press Office reported that the Holy See signed an agreement with Italy on February 8th for the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital (Child Jesus), known as the “Pope’s Hospital,” to have a new location.
In a note published this Thursday, it is specified that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Vatican, and the Undersecretary of State at the presidency of the Council of Ministers of Italy, Alfredo Mantovano, have signed a “declaration of intent” regarding the emblematic health center.
The text recognizes the hospital’s “total excellence in the field of pediatric healthcare and national and international biomedical research,” which will have its new location “in the area of the former Carlo Forlanini hospital in Rome, one of the most suitable places” for the project.
The declaration establishes specific points such as “the acquisition—for a price to be determined—by the Holy See of the area and building known as ‘Forlanini complex’ to the Lazio Region; the granting by the Holy See to INAIL of the right of superficie, for a period and a value to be agreed upon by the parties; the construction by INAIL of the new hospital; and the leasing by INAIL of the new hospital complex, in exchange for a fee that remunerates INAIL’s investment.”
INAIL is the National Institute for Insurance against Workplace Accidents. Its website indicates that “it is a non-profit public entity that manages the public and compulsory insurance of accidents at work and occupational diseases.”
The signing of the declaration took place within the framework of a congress marking the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Concordat between Italy and the Holy See, carried out on February 18, 1984.
According to Vatican News, Alfredo Mantovano told journalists that the declaration “is the result of the common will to offer adequate spaces primarily to children with serious illnesses, their families, the doctors planning to treat them, and the research activity.”
In that sense, the Italian Undersecretary of State specified that it is “a rather complex path from a legal and economic point of view, but that fully respects the spirit of the Concordat.”
To conclude, Mantovano explained that the goal is to open the new location before 2030, to provide the “Pope’s Hospital” with spaces “at least four times larger than the current ones, which today do not allow the hospital to develop the potential for which it is known worldwide.”
Founded in 1869 by the Duchess Arabella Salviati, the Bambino Gesù was donated to Pope Pius XI in 1924, to give it a more stable future.
While the hospital is located in Rome, the iconic health center is situated in an extraterritorial area administered by the Holy See.
