Through a chirograph — a papal decree — published on Wednesday, May 27, Pope Leo XIV established a commission to oversee an Italian hospital founded by Padre Pio. Acknowledging the need for “significant investment” to maintain the financially struggling facility, the Pontiff launched an audit and insisted on the importance of the “sound management of such funds.”
<em>The Vatican has established a special commission to oversee the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, which faces mounting debt and administrative challenges.</em>
The Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza — Italian for the House for the Relief of Suffering — is a hospital located in the southern Italian town of San Giovanni Rotondo. It was founded at the initiative of St. Pio in the 1950s. The Holy See has owned the facility since the Italian saint died in 1968. The Vatican’s Secretariat of State has controlled it since 1970 through the foundation “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza – Work of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, O.F.M. Cap.”
Evaluating a financial and administrative crisis
Despite maintaining a strong medical reputation, the hospital has weathered a severe financial, social, and political crisis in recent years. The facility’s debts were estimated at approximately 220 million euros in 2024. Some wages have even gone unpaid in recent months. Furthermore, the hospital is currently clashing with labor unions and the local Apulia regional government, from which it is demanding 32 million euros.
In his chirograph signed on Wednesday, May 27, Pope Leo XIV highlighted the “significant investment” from both public and private funds required for the hospital to continue its mission. In this context, he explained his decision, “having consulted experts and other collaborators,” to establish a “Steering and Supervisory Commission for the Foundation ‘Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza – Opera di San Pio da Pietrelcina, O.F.M. Cap.’”
This Commission is tasked with “analysing the current situation of the Foundation, identifying the best solutions for ever-greater efficiency, effectiveness, and long-term sustainability of its work and mission, and for the practical implementation of the solutions thus identified.”
In practice, the Commission is authorized to act “including in lieu of the Foundation’s statutory bodies,” effectively placing the institution in receivership. The Commission’s chair, Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy Maximino Caballero Ledo, is appointed to represent the foundation as a “special attorney.”
New leadership to oversee the hospital’s recovery
Fabio Gasperini, secretary of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), the Vatican’s “central bank,” was appointed to serve as the Commission’s coordinator. The new entity’s members include key representatives from the involved organizations: APSA President Archbishop Giordano Piccinotti, Archbishop Paolo Rudelli, who serves as Substitute of the Secretariat of State, and Archbishop Giorgio Ferretti of Foggia-Bovino.
The Pope also established a Technical Committee consisting of Benjamín Estévez de Cominges, secretary of the Secretariat for the Economy; Dr. Gino Gumirato, director of the Casa Sollievo; and Alessandro Ela Oyana, a lawyer from the Italian audit firm Lexacta. In the chirograph, the Pope emphasized that the Commission has “the right to access and obtain all data, documents and information” concerning the hospital’s management.
This is not the first measure of its kind adopted by Pope Leo XIV. Since his election, he has signed six decrees correcting the administrative situations of various Vatican entities. Notably, he liquidated the organization responsible for World Children’s Day, ended the financial autonomy of St. Peter’s Basilica, and restored the central sector of the Diocese of Rome.
