Porto/JLC Diocese
The Bishop of Porto, Manuel Linda.
The business also involved the exchange of houses for a degraded T0 with a company with a nonexistent address. Residents are angry and the municipality has already exercised the right to preference over the sale.
A controversial real estate business of the Porto Diocese is generating revolt among dozens of residents of a historic neighborhood of the city. According to the church, the church has changed 15 houses, inhabited for generations for poor families, for a T0 that does not even exist yet.
Residents, who were known to exchange only by letter sent by the new owner – a company with apparently nonexistent physical address – accuse the diocese of betrayal and lack of transparency.
Houses, donated for more than 60 years by a beneficial to the Church on the condition that not sold or increased incomeswere delivered to the Vilar Seminar. The current tenants, direct descendants of donation beneficiaries, are now living under the constant fear of eviction. “I feel wrong,” says Tiburcio, 74, who has lived in the same house since he was a child. “We weren’t even informed, we knew by a letter.”
The silence of the diocese of Porto and Bishop D. Manuel Linda has fueled the desperation of the residents. The Church not only refused to dialogue but did not allow access to business deed.
Houses, evaluated by real estate in more than four million euros, will have been sold for about 230 thousand euros – Approximately 15 thousand per unit. Residents say that if they had the opportunity, they would have bought their dwellings for that value. “It’s a scandal,” says Emílio Borges, who ensures that all houses have two floors and generous areas.
The mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, was surprised by the business, revealing that he was only aware after a political campaign action. The municipality has already expressed intention to acquire the properties for social housing, but so far has no clear response from the diocese. “The letter of the bishop is a ‘nim‘”Laments Moreira.
The residents’ lawyer admits that the reversal of the business is difficult, but not impossible, especially if it is proven that there has been irregularities. The T0 received by the church as an exchange is so far only one degraded house, with promise of rehabilitation over the next three years.
