U.S. priests working at the Vatican call quiet Villa Stritch home

Published: 2006-07-28

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- U.S. diocesan priests working at the Vatican hang their collars at the Villa Stritch, a complex with two apartment buildings surrounded by green lawns and an unusual silence for the city of Rome. The 27 small apartments at the villa, opened in 1968, have been full for more than 15 years, even though the original idea was that a few apartments would be available for visiting bishops. And although the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' headquarters in Washington is more than 4,400 miles away, the Villa Stritch is feeling the bishops' tightening purse strings. While individual bishops and their dioceses lend priests to the Vatican, the entire bishops' conference helps support them. Msgr. Robert Sarno from the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y., the director of the villa, says the Villa Stritch annual budgets have remained the same for 2004-2007. Each of the residents contributes $340 a month from his Vatican salary to the house, covering about 20 percent of the Villa Stritch expenses; the U.S. bishops' grant a $480,000 subsidy to the villa each year to cover the rest of the costs.

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