Vatican Released Detailed Budget, Balance Sheet and Earning Statement for First Time
Saturday, October 3rd, 2020 -- 10:23 AM
The Vatican released a detailed budget, balance sheet and earning statement for the first time Thursday as it sought to reassure Catholics that it’s serious about cleaning up its financial act following a corruption scandal that has exposed shoddy fiscal management.The data marked the first time since 2016 that the Vatican has released any information about its finances, despite pledges by Pope Francis from the start of his pontificate in 2013 to be more transparent and accountable with the Holy See’s money. The data showed that the Vatican bureaucracy had narrowed its deficit to 11 million euros last year from 75 million euros in 2018, even taking into account a 25 million-euro drop in donations from dioceses and individuals alike. But more than the earnings statement, the consolidated report provided the first-known publicly released information about the Vatican’s net equity, estimated at 1.4 billion euros ($1.6 billion) for the Holy See Curia, or bureaucracy. The Vatican’s overall patrimony blooms to 4 billion euros ($4.7 billion) when taking into account the cash-cow of the Vatican Museums, the Vatican bank and other sources of assets and funds.
The report also marked the first time the Vatican has made public how its operating budget is divided among the various Holy See offices, which serve as the central government of the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church. Astonishingly, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - in recent decades perhaps the best-known Vatican office because it processes all clergy sex abuse cases - operates on an annual budget of 3.36 million euros. That represents 1% of the Curia’s budget for its apostolic work, far less than what is budgeted for the Vatican’s Apostolic Library or Archives. (AP)
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