Legal status of the Holy See of 16 July 2004. Legal status of the Holy See The legal status of the Holy See, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, both in state practice and according to the writing of modern legal scholars, is that of a full subject of public international law, with rights and duties analogous to those of States. Although the Holy See, as distinct from the Vatican City State, does not fulfill the long-established criteria in international law of statehood; i.e. having a permanent population, a defined territory, a stable government and the capacity to enter into relations with other
Administration of the Property of the Holy See the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. Administration of the Property of the Holy See Administration of the Property of the Holy See (, abbreviated ABSS) was a commission that, until 1967, administered the property of the Holy See other than the money in cash and Italian government bonds received when the Financial Convention attached to the Lateran Treaty of 1929 was implemented. Its origin lay in the decision of Pope Leo XIII on 9 August 1878 to appoint his then Secretary of State also as Prefect of the Sacred Palace and Administrator of the patrimony remaining to the Holy See