The declaration of intent signed today between Italy and the Holy See on the new headquarters of the Bambino Gesù "was the subject of joint work that lasted a year".
The undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council, Alfredo Mantovano, said this at the end of the signing with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State.
"It is obviously the first formal step in a process - Mantovano specified - we hope to conclude on the basis of forecasts by 2030" Mantovano said that the agreement represents "the outcome of the common desire to give adequate spaces to children with serious pathologies, their families, the doctors who treat them and research. When they say that politics must deal with important and serious things, this is the case."
The Italian government and the Holy See have agreed on having identified the area of the former Carlo Forlanini Hospital in Rome as "one of the most suitable places for the construction of the new headquarters" of the Bambino Gesù. According to the agreements, the Vatican will buy the Forlanini area but Inail will build the building for the new hospital complex, while the Holy See will then pay rent to Inail itself.
As happens with the current hospital on the Janiculum, the area will have extraterritorial immunity, as provided for by the Lateran Treaty.
The Declaration refers to the start of a discussion between the parties on the destination of the historic site of Sant'Onofrio, "taking into account the current social welfare function of the complex and also providing for the right of pre-emption in favor of the Italian state".
The Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, the President of the Lazio Region, Francesco Rocca, the Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri and the president of the hospital, Tiziano Onesti.
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