the papal uprising against the cardinals was the largest and most comprehensive ecclesiastic revolution in history, and led to almost totally-equal redistribution of churches among the clergy
:jesse-wtf: who the hell owned Vatican assets if not the papacy lol
declaring them to be sovereign patrimony owned by the Holy See and not any individual or office.
Oh ok
yeah the "nationalizing" makes it sound like it's going to Italy or something but the Vatican was always a little private pseudo-state inside rome with its own jurisdiction. So this just means individual clergy can't privately own vatican assets... I think?
I think it's more that the hundreds of smaller offices and legal entities within the Vatican (for example, the Vatican library or the Congregation for the doctrine of the Faith, formerly known as the Holy Inquisition) previously had a larger degree of leeway on the management of their own assets. This move puts the holy see in the driver's seat, and allows them to take over or dispose of any assets they see fit without asking the individual office or congregation if they're okay with it, or having to order it formally and wait for the order to be followed.
I remember reading that Francis is trying to minimize the power of certain offices and individuals in high levels of the church, and bringing them back into more central roles, so this sounds like he's cutting off the financial resources they had to exercise and augment their power.
