The implementation of models of financial equalization de mutuo subsidio in the organisational structures of the Church assumes, especially in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, a priority value.
In this framework, can. 1271 CIC 1983 positivises an unprecedented form of vertical receipt of financial flows for the charity of the Roman Pontiff. This model, which stands alongside the Obolus of St Peter, refers back to the ancient Pauline practice of collections in the early Christian communities and to the theme of sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum, but it also expresses the need to extend the conceptual perimeter of caritas to the central governing offices of the Apostolic See.
The norm, a novelty in the new Codex, nevertheless poses legal problems that are not easy to solve. In harmony with the conciliar principles of co-participation, subsidiarity and co-responsibility, it summarises the principle-goal of caritas, but requires innovative paradigms of method in organising the "structures" in tune with international standards of rationality, efficiency and transparency of the management of financial flows in the central-peripheral transit dynamics.