The Secretary of State of His Holiness, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the under-secretary of the Council of Ministers, Alfredo Mantovano, signed today, Thursday 8 February, at the Embassy of Italy to the Holy See, a Declaration of Intent regarding the Bambino Gesù Paediatric Hospital (OPBG).

In the Declaration, the Parties – acknowledging the level of absolute excellency in the field of paediatric healthcare assistance and biomedical research at national and international level of the Bambino Gesù Paediatric Hospital – agree that its current facilities, and in particular the historical Sant’Onofrio site, do not permit any further expansion or improvement of healthcare provision or research activities. Therefore, the Government of the Italian Republic and the Holy See declare that they have identified in the area of the former Carlo Forlanini Hospital of Rome “one of the most suitable places for the construction of the new site” of the Bambino Gesù Paediatric Hospital.

The Declaration goe on to outline a series of objectives that each party undertakes to achieve. These include, first of all, the definition of the necessary regulatory architecture to favour the implementation of the interventions and the full economic sustainability of the operation. Secondly, the text specifies the main phases of the operation, or rather the acquisition by the Holy See – at a price to be established – of the area and the building known as the "Forlanini complex" from the Lazio Region; the granting by the Holy See to INAIL of the surface right, for a period and a value to be agreed upon by the parties the construction by INAIL of the new hospital; the lease by INAIL of the new hospital complex, in return for a fee that remunerates INAIL's investment; finally, the stipulation of an agreement between the Holy See and Italy for the transfer of the immunities under Articles 15 and 16 of the Lateran Treaty to the new premises of the Bambino Gesù.

The Declaration then refers to the initiation of a discussion between the parties on the use of the historical Sant’Onofrio site, taking into account the current social-welfare function of the complex and also providing for the right of pre-emption in favour of the Italian State.

The signing of the Declaration took place on the sidelines of the Conference "State and Church 40 years after the signing of the Republican Concordat", dedicated to the Agreement amending the Concordat, signed in February 1984 by President Craxi and Secretary of State Cardinal Casaroli.