Religious orders’ heritage at ‘serious risk of sale and dispersion,’ Vatican cardinal warns (Il Giornale dell’Architettura)

“A recent study,” said Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, “hypothesizes that in Flanders the last monastery will close in 2030. In Italy, if the current decrease is maintained, the last convent will close in 2046! Of course, this will not happen, because the future is not just the product of a mathematical projection. Even so, the theme of the dismission of the ecclesiastical patrimony of religious communities is becoming more and more recurrent.”