The Vatican says it expects a shortfall of nearly $ 60.7 million this year due to pandemic-related losses, a figure that grows to $ 97 million if donations from believers are excluded.
ROME – The Vatican said on Friday it expects a shortfall of nearly 50 million euros ($ 60.7 million) this year due to pandemic-related losses, a figure that grows to 80 million euros ($ 97 million) as donations from believers are excluded.
The Vatican has released a summary of its 2021 budget approved by Pope Francis and the Council of the Holy See for the Economy, a commission of outside experts overseeing the Vatican’s finances. The publication is presumably the first time the Vatican has announced its projected consolidated budget, which is part of Francis’ quest to make the Vatican’s finances more transparent and accountable.
The Vatican has had a deficit for the past few years, reducing it to 11 million euros in 2019 from a gap of 75 million euros in 2018. The Vatican said on Friday that it expects the deficit to reach 49.7 million euros in 2021. growth, but that he expected to make up the shortfall with reserves.
Francis especially wanted to disclose information about the believers’ Peter’s collections, which is seen as a concrete way to help the pope in his ministry and charity, but which is also used to run the Holy See bureaucracy.
The funds were scrutinized amid a financial scandal over how the donations were invested by the Vatican’s secretariat.
Vatican prosecutors investigating the office’s 350 million euro investment in a London real estate business said some of the money came from Peter’s Pence donations. Other Vatican officials dispute the claim, but it has nonetheless become a cause for scandal.
Francis defended the Vatican’s investment in Peter’s Pence funds, saying that any good administrator invests wisely rather than keeping it in a “drawer”.
According to a release from the Economic Council, the Vatican received approximately 47.3 million euros from the Peter’s Pence collections and other dedicated funds and earned 17 million euros in grants, leaving a net amount of approximately 30 million euros .
The amount of Peter’s Pence collections is lower than a decade ago. In 2009, the collection reached $ 82.52 million, while the collection amounted to $ 75.8 million in 2008 and $ 79.8 million in 2007. Sexual abuse and financial scandals in the church are believed to be at least partially responsible for the decline.
The Vatican’s total operating income fell by 21% or 48 million euros last year. Revenue was hit hard by the closure of the Vatican Museums pandemic, which in 2020 had only 1.3 million visitors compared to nearly 7 million the previous year. The Museums, along with the Vatican’s real estate, provide the bulk of the Holy See’s liquidity.