TIRANA, Albania, DEC. 4, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See and Albania signed an agreement concerning, in part, the fiscal status of Catholic Church organizations in the country.
The agreement, signed Monday in the office of the Albanian minister of finance in Tirana, comes after the accord between the two countries concluded in 2002.
The current agreement, reported the Vatican, "creates a juridical framework for the fiscal treatment of ecclesiastical institutions recognized as nonprofit juridical entities. In particular, it regulates the fiscal status of Catholic Church organizations in Albania, the economic administration of such structures and the contributory-insurance scheme for the non-Albanian religious and lay personnel who serve in them."
Archbishop Giovanni Bulaitis, apostolic nuncio in Tirana, signed the agreement for the Holy See. Ridvan Bode, Albania's finance minister, signed the agreement for his country.
