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‘The pope’s mission is underfunded’

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — The Catholic Church’s monetary chief warned in an interview on Friday that “a really unsure interval lies forward” for the Vatican’s monetary well being, whilst he reported important progress in decreasing the church’s finances deficit.

The Rev. Juan Antonio Guerrero, prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Financial system, stated that Pope Francis’ reforms to the Vatican’s monetary and funding insurance policies have contributed to the deficit discount detailed within the 2021 monetary assertion launched Friday (Aug. 5).

The assertion consists of monetary information for 92 entities of the Holy See however omits figures for the Institute for Religious Works, commonly known as the Vatican Bank, and the Governorate of the Vatican Metropolis State, which covers its museums, the police and different administrative places of work.

Regardless of cuts to the church forms often called the Roman Curia, Guerrero stated, expenditures proceed to develop whereas revenues dwindle.

“There isn’t any doubt that we can’t act solely on bills by decreasing them,” he stated. “There’ll come a time once they can’t be decreased additional with out compromising the mission, so we’re additionally engaged on methods to extend revenues.”

Briefly, stated the finance czar, “The pope’s mission is underfunded.” 

The Rev. Juan Antonio Guerrero in 2019. Picture by Robert Ballecer, courtesy of Society of Jesus

The Vatican’s deficit, initially estimated to be 33 million euros, fell to barely greater than 3 million euros final yr. Property grew from 2.2 billion to three.9 billion euros.

“The trail taken continues and deepens,” stated Guerrero in an interview with Vatican media revealed on Friday. Guerrero was appointed by Francis in January 2020 to spearhead his efforts to reform the Vatican’s traditionally troubled funds.

The discount of the deficit was primarily attributed to a “favorable market development” and constructive alternate charge between {dollars} and euros, the report acknowledged. “Decrease revenues, on account of decrease donations and contributions, have been compensated by bills financial savings and correct actual property administration,” it stated.

In recent times the Vatican has confronted shrinking donations, and the COVID-19 pandemic diminished its sources. In the meantime, financial scandals, most prominently one over a controversial London actual property buy that has resulted within the trial of a prime cardinal, have price the establishment thousands and thousands and inhibited donations from Catholics worldwide, a bunch whose numbers are already shrinking amid rising secularization.

The London property at the heart of the Vatican financial scandal. Image via Google Maps

The London property on the coronary heart of the Vatican monetary scandal. Picture through Google Maps

Regardless of constructive steps ahead, Guerrero identified that the Vatican’s revenues rely closely on market forces, and “when the monetary outcomes are usually not as favorable, as in 2020, an working deficit emerges.”

The communications division stays the most costly entity on the Vatican, costing a complete of 40 million euros, the report confirmed. “Message diffusion” was the first expense of the Holy See (44 million euros), adopted by supporting struggling native church buildings (38 million euros).

Guerrero defined that yearly the Holy See should promote belongings amounting to twenty–24 million euros to cowl the prices of the Curia.

Whereas serving to scale back corruption and reduce prices, the pope’s reforms have additionally added a pressure on the Vatican’s funds. For instance, he provided Francis’ order that the very best appellate Vatican court docket, the Roman Rota, which grants annulments, cease charging for entry, turning it from “being self-financing to being in deficit.”


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Struggling Catholic hospitals and an ailing pension fund additionally weigh closely on the church’s funds.

“Catholic well being care is itself going by means of a troublesome time in Italy,” Guerrero stated. Many Catholic-owned or managed hospitals battle with debt. Whereas the pediatric hospital Bambino Gesù “is economically wholesome,” Guerrero stated, the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza is at the moment in an “financial disaster.”

Relating to the Vatican pension fund, Guerrero admitted that there isn’t a doubt “we’re promising greater than we are able to really afford.” He added that whereas there may be nonetheless time to introduce corrective measures, “we should do it quickly.”


RELATED: Catholics’ reports on the state of the Church are in. Here’s what they have to say.


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