From Crux:
ROME – Bishops and the government in Italy just collaborated on guidelines for what to do with unused churches now up for sale.
The final product runs to a staggering total of hundreds of pages, but experts and senior officials suggested Thursday the basics can be boiled down to couple simple ideas. In essence, the take-away is this: Libraries and community centers, fine; hotels, discos or casinos, probably not so much. Speaking to Crux, Bishop Stefano Russo, secretary general of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, said that in the event a church is sold, the Catholic Church’s intention is to ensure, as much as possible, that they are “cared for by the community, particularly the Christian community,” and that “they can preserve their function as a place of worship.”