The Vatican says it expects a deficit of nearly $ 60.7 million this year due to pandemic-related losses, a figure that rises to $ 97 million when donations from the faithful are excluded
ROME – The Vatican said Friday it expects a deficit of nearly 50 million euros ($ 60.7 million) this year due to pandemic-related losses, a figure that rises to 80 million euros ($ 97 million) when donations from the faithful are excluded.
The Vatican has released a summary of its 2021 budget approved by Pope Francis and the Holy See’s Economy Council, a committee of outside experts overseeing the Vatican’s finances. The publication was believed to be the Vatican’s first time to publish its estimated consolidated budget, part of Francis’ commitment to make the Vatican’s finances more transparent and accountable.
The Vatican has been running a deficit in recent years and has been cut to 11 million euros in 2019 from a 75 million euros gap in 2018. The Vatican said Friday it expected the deficit to reach 49.7 million euros in 2021, but that it expected to fill the deficit with reserves.
Francis especially wanted to release information about the faithful’s Peter’s Pence collections, which are heralded as a concrete way of assisting the Pope in his ministry and charitable works, but which are also used to direct the bureaucracy of the Holy See.
The funds have come under scrutiny amid a financial scandal over how those donations were being invested by the Vatican Secretariat of State.
Vatican prosecutors investigating the office’s $ 350 million investment in a London real estate company have said some of the money came from donations from Peter’s Pence. Other Vatican officials dispute the claim, but it nonetheless became a cause for scandal.
Francis has defended the Vatican’s investment in the Peter’s Pence funds, saying that any good administrator invests money wisely rather than keeping it in a “drawer.”
According to a release from the Council for the Economy, the Vatican received approximately € 47.3 million in revenue from the Peter’s Pence collections and other special funds, and made € 17 million in donations, leaving it about € 30 million net.
The number of Peter’s Pence collections has decreased significantly compared to ten years ago. In 2009, the collection was $ 82.52 million, while the collection totaled $ 75.8 million in 2008 and $ 79.8 million in 2007. Sexual abuse and financial scandals in the Church are said to be at least partly responsible for the decline.
The total operating profit of the Vatican fell by 21% last year, or 48 million euros. Revenues were badly hit by the pandemic-related closure of the Vatican Museums, which attracted just 1.3 million visitors in 2020, compared to nearly 7 million the year before. The museums, along with the Vatican’s real estate holdings, provide most of the Holy See’s liquidity.