Aboard the papal plane, 30 January, 2024 / 7:51 pm (ACI Africa).
The agreement that the Vatican and the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe signed on 15 August 2022, the annual Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the recognition of the Catholic Church and her ecclesiastical institutions as a “juridical personality” in the African Island country has been ratified.
A Tuesday, January 30 Holy See Communique provides details of the events of the previous day at the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican, during which “the instruments of ratification of the Agreement between the Holy See and the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe were exchanged.”
Drafted in Italian and Portuguese and consisting some 28 articles, the agreement, which “came into effect with the exchange of the Instruments of Ratification … establishes the recognition of the legal personality of the Catholic Church and the ecclesiastical institutions, and defines the legal framework of relations between the Church and the State,” the communiqué indicates.
The January 29 agreement also “consolidates the existing bonds of friendship and collaboration between the two Parties, who, to safeguard the independence and autonomy proper to them, undertake to collaborate for the spiritual and material wellbeing of the human person, as well as the promotion of the common good.”
The agreement was solemnly enacted by representatives of the two parties: the Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, for the Vatican, and for São Tomé and Príncipe, the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Communities, Gareth Haddad do Espírito Santo Guadalupe.
