The reform of voluntary work and social and welfare activities reached its peak with the legislative decree n. 117/2017 introductory of the Third Sector Code and directly in- volved ecclesiastical bodies. The spirit of updating and rationalization of the general regime, however, has produced disorientation on the discipline of “religious bodies” and, even before, on their identity. The conceptual and methodical confusions that emerge from the writing of the CTS, in particular in terms of articles 4, 5 and 6, also lead us to believe that a necessary temporal sedimentation in the normative reflection was lacking.

This is clear from the analysis of the subjective category of ecclesiastical legal entities and from the activity of general interest carried out by them, 'purified' of the finalistic and identifying factor of caritas. On this basis, some interpretative ideas de iure condendo are offered around the current validity of the concordat formula known as 'ecclesiastical entities'.