Church assets can be sold to help poor if necessary - Pope

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 29 - Pope Francis has mooted the idea of Catholic Church assets being sold in some cases to help the poor, while stressing that this is only one of several options. "The (Church's) cultural assets are directed towards the charitable activities carried out by the ecclesiastical community," the pope said in a message to participants at a conference on decommissioning places of worship and management of ecclesiastical cultural heritage at the Pontifical Gregorian University. While stressing the "duty to protect and conserve the assets of the Church, in particular its cultural heritage" Francis said that these assets "do not have an absolute value, but in cases of need must serve for the greater good of the human being and especially the service of the poor".
    However, the pontiff also said that "decommissioning must not be the first and only solution". He said that the fact churches are frequently empty was "a sign of the times that calls on us to reflect".