(About illegal immigration) We cannot accept that in 2025 there will still be human waste. They are all brothers and sisters who deserve welcome, res… - Baldassare Reina

According to recent research (March 2025) carried out by Sapienza University of Rome and promoted by the Mayor of Rome, Prof. Roberto Gualtieri, and the City Councillor for Heritage and Housing Policy, Dr. Andrea Tobia Zevi, “An approximate total of around 114,000 households can therefore be estimated as being in a fragile housing situation in Rome and, therefore, overexposed to the risk of serious housing hardship.” This total includes “households in situations of serious emergency, identified as special populations: around 22,000 families”. All this in the presence of approximately 160-200,000 empty and unused private apartments! The problem is complex and has deep roots. It certainly does not help to note that in certain large suburban areas, there are reports of publicly owned dwellings that are uninhabited and awaiting allocation, These are easily exposed to possible squatting, often colluding with criminal activities in the area, such as drug dealing and prostitution. They are sometimes in poor condition, in need of structural renovation, or have many architectural barriers or non-functioning lifts, which isolate the many elderly people who live there alone and many disabled people.
Meanwhile, “short-term” rentals are rampant, yielding much higher returns for landlords than “long-term” rentals, i.e. regular rental contracts, and are disrupting the social fabric of many neighbourhoods, not only in the centre. In July 2024, the Istat report indicated that in ten years, the resident population in the First Municipality had fallen by 38%, i.e. more than 20,000 people had moved elsewhere. Meanwhile, the number of short-term rentals on the web reached 35,000, including holiday homes and mini-apartments, without taking into account the irregular market.

As quoted in Papa Francesco: card. Reina, “Roma è un popolo che piange il suo vescovo”, “l’umanità appare come pecore senza pastore”, AgenSIR (April 28, 2025)

[Papa Francesco ha lasciato] un'eredità immensa, ha messo al centro della Chiesa il Vangelo di Gesù Cristo. [...] Ho letto nel suo testamento che ha offerto tutte le sue sofferenze al Signore per la pace. [...] [Il successore] eredita una Chiesa all'interno della quale papa Francesco aveva avviato, aveva aperto diversi processi, processi che meritano di essere approfonditi, di essere ulteriormente accompagnati. È stato uno dei pilastri dell'insegnamento di papa Francesco: piuttosto che occupare spazi, avviare processi. Lui ne ha avviati davvero tanti e speriamo che il suo successore possa accompagnare questi processi per la riforma missionaria della Chiesa. [...] La storia ci insegna che ogni previsione [sulla durata del conclave] rischia di infrangersi perché, in realtà, chi guida la Chiesa è lo Spirito Santo; chi guida il conclave, è lo Spirito Santo. Quindi, i tempi li detterà lo Spirito Santo e noi ci affidiamo a Lui.