XIV. ADMINISTRATION OF TEMPORAL GOODS
"Be content with what you have; for God has said, 'I will never fail you nor forsake you'... Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God." (Heb 13,5. 16)
187. The Salesian Society may acquire, possess, administer and alienate temporal goods. This is true for the Congregation as a whole, for individual provinces and for each house. Such goods should not be held in the name of an individual person, and should be retained only to the extent that they are directly useful for our works.
R 187
Acquiring and holding real estate with the sole object of producing income, and every other kind of interest-bearing investment is forbidden, except in the cases referred to in article 188 of the Constitutions.
188. The authorization of the Rector Major with the consent of his council is needed for:
1. acquiring, alienating, exchanging, mortgaging or renting real estate;
2. contracting loans with or without mortgage;
3. accepting inheritances, bequests or donations to which obligations are attached (when no obligation is attached it is sufficient merely to notify the Rector Major);
4. establishing annuities, student burses, Mass obligations, special or charitable foundations;
5. constructing new buildings, demolishing existing ones or making major alterations.
When such authorization is applied for either at the provincial or local level, adequate documentation must be submitted together with the opinion of the provincial and his council, and also that of the rector and his council when a local house is concerned.
189. With regard to all the operations referred to in article 188, it belongs to the Rector Major with the consent of his council, after hearing the opinion of the provincials with their respective councils and in the light of relevant decisions of the Apostolic See, to determine the financial limits within which each provincial with the consent of his council is competent to grant authorizations by an analogous procedure.
In the case of operations which exceed the amount laid down by the Apostolic See, or of things donated to the Church as the result of a vow, or objects which are precious by reason of their artistic or historical value,1 the permission of the Apostolic See itself is required.
190. All temporal goods are administered respectively by the economer general and by provincial and local economers, under the direction and control of the appropriate superiors and councils, in conformity with canonical dispositions, in accordance with the Constitutions and general Regulations, and in compliance with the laws of each country.