Vatican Runs Deficit Amid Global Economic Crisis

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican said Saturday it ran a deficit in 2008 as its finances and donations from across the world were hit by the global economic crisis.

The Vatican posted a budget deficit for a second straight year, though the figures improved strongly from 2007. The Holy See's 2008 deficit was around euro0.9 million ($1.28 million), compared with a loss of euro9.06 million a year earlier.

The financial report released Saturday by the Holy See's press office listed revenues of euro253.9 million and expenses for euro254.8 million.

Most of expenses went to support the activities of Pope Benedict XVI and the Holy See's offices, especially Vatican Radio and other media divisions, the report said.

It said the separate administration of the Vatican City state was particularly hit by the economic crisis. High costs to restore the Vatican's cultural treasures and ensure security left the tiny state with a euro15.3 million deficit, after closing 2007 with a euro6.7 million gain.

The Vatican said annual donations from churches worldwide, the so-called Peter's Pence, were down to almost $75.8 million from $79.8 million in 2007. Leading donors were faithful in the United States, Italy and Germany.

The pope uses the fund to help churches in poor countries and other charitable causes.

The Vatican has published the annual report since 1981, when Pope John Paul II ordered financial disclosure as part of his efforts to debunk the idea that the Vatican is rich.

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On the Net:

http://www.vatican.va

(This version CORRECTS UPDATES with details; corrects larger loss was in 2007, not last year.)

Comments

[Clairvaux]

At some point, the people of the world will realize that they don't need some old man dressed in bizarre costume telling them how to live.

Listen to you heart. Use your brain.

[napasonoma]

Its a great dream, but it will never happen.
There will always be very stup!d people in this world who cannot and will not think for themselves.

[HPdevotee]

For an interesting read on an evolutional/ biological reason some still cling to religion, may I suggest Richard Dawkins 'The God Delusion" ...fascina­ting.

[VegasWolf]

I disagree. I think some people will always want their ( priests, shamans, etc. ) to talk to the invisible sky people to discern the tea readings of which things the sky people approve of and which things they don't and how much tithes to pay the ( priests, shamans, etc. ) for their invaluable translation expertise.

[cheriemarie]

You!

[StanNotFromCA]

Time for a few tea parties at the Vatican. What they going to do, raise my tithe to 11%?

[TXfemmom]

I think that the money the Catholic Church and other churches receive should be taxed. Only the money they can prove they spent to feed the hungry and poor, to supply housing and assistance, to supply medical assistance, and to supply assistanced in seeking employment should be tax free. Everything else should be taxed because providing tax free money and facilities promotes a religion and the churches are too politically involved.

[Diogenis]

Because...­the Government wants them involved..­....for votes!!

[AnnArky]

That deficit, of course, would the the Deficit of Truth.

[NevaforLeadership]

Great post, AnnArky.

[BigBagel]

If Judge Sotomayor went to public school in the Bronx instead of 12 years of Catholic school she'd be waiting tables today. Catholic schools in places like the Bronx, Harlem are full of non Catholics. Why?

[napasonoma]

Excuse me. I went to PS 16 and Evander Childs High School in the Bronx -- and I own my own very lucrative business.

[BigBagel]

Yea, revisit your old high school and get back to me. She went to Spellman up by 233 St. It's a much better school then Evander.

[cheriemarie]

This is bulls**t. The majority of judges, civic leaders and CEOs are publicly educated. Sotomatyor didn't get where she is because she was exposed to Catholicism.

[BigBagel]

Of course the majority of people are educated in public schools. Non Catholics like Bill Clinton still have opted for a Catholic education.

[VegasWolf]

Do Catholic schools teach such hasty generalization logic as your statement implies ?

[BigBagel]

No. Check academic achievement in Bronx Catholic schools compared to Bronx public schools.

[beckpod1]

Being created equal only means that anyone can be brainwashed !
If all these holy leaders would get together in the name of mankind...­.they could wipe out world-wide starvation completely! Instead we have these large castles of glass and stone...an­d flawed people walking around in expensive gowns dictating moral laws.(slav­ery has been accepted by these people since the beginning)
Here's ten bucks Mr. Pope...tak­e a cab and leave....

[fefo70]

Sell a painting, you old drag queen! You'll pay off the defecit in two shakes of a lamb's tail.

[napasonoma]

Plus billions of dollars in real estate worldwide. Billions in stock holdings. And the sheep keep dropping their nickels and times in the beggars collections plates. Go figure.

[frankel1205]

Maybe they can start selling indulgences again. Oh wait! Didn't they start that again last year. Maybe they can go up on their prices for marriage annulments. Or pehaps the Vatican, Inc. can put some of their jewel encrusted churches and altars on the market. The first time I went to Italy, I was shocked to see dark altars and the Church charging the poor saps money to illuminate them for 10 seconds!
Also, people were charged money to file by embalmed, hundreds- year- old bodies of the clergy in glass coffins. The main thing that has busted the Roman Catholic Church are the expenses of paying for the pedophile priests.

[Cambridge9]

When I was three years old the local Catholic Bishop announced to my mother and father that my sister and I were born "bastards" because my father (a non practicing Catholic) had married my mother outside the church - when the church had refused to marry them because my mother wasn't Catholic. So, I've been a 'bastard' for the last 75 years. However, I really don't think my life has been wasted because of it. Read my Bio.

[richdibo]

Awesome!

[loki]

Look out , its time for the Crusades to start back up. Rebuilding the empire will be hard, but the church is as good as Rove and the GOP at using Fear to gain power and money.

[jdlund]

I know many of you hate the Catholic Church. Some for good reason, most for ridiculous generalizations and baseless accusations. But you people are being a little silly. The Catholic Church isn't going under. It isn't going bankrupt. It won't go away. The amount of wealth the Church has makes these statements pretty ridiculous. There's not a chance that it will go under. And there are far too many wealthy powerful people and nations that would never let that happen.

It has the biggest safety network of any organization that I am aware of. It is still the single largest religious organization on Earth. While there are more protestants than Catholic, no one Protestant church even comes close to the means and members that the Catholic Church has. While it is getting really close to being more Muslims than Christians there is no one Muslim Church or organization with as much means and members as the Catholic Church. They are insulated from disaster pretty completely.

[naschkatze]

You are right. An ex-Catholic, I do hate the church, the hierarchy to be more specific, and you are also right that it is not going to go under.

[NevaforLeadership]

Don't get me wrong, I am an atheist.

But any Muslim reading your comment will shudder at the thought of a "Muslim church."

[HPdevotee]

They may not go under financiall­y..but they are already morally bankrupt. I point to their latest crime against the 9 year old r.ape victim in Brazil.

[Cambridge9]

I hear you!

[JBVT]

Starve the beast...

[Retrofuturistic]

I hope they go bankrupt--- in the same way that they have been bankrupting the emotional health of their followers for milleniums.

[NevaforLeadership]

This is great news.

But they don't give up.

As the Vatican's indoctrinated regain their reason and their misguided donations slow to a treacly trickle, the Vatican sends its supplicant hordes to proselytize in Africa in an attempt to refill their coffers for generations to come.

The most shortsighted of goals, as generations of converts are wiped out, as the Vatican's celibate pawns preach the evils of condoms and birth control.

[Anderia]

Great post.

Slowly but surely they will lose any new converts, as over time people are realizing that religion is so passe'.

Isn't there a new fad on the horizon? Namely, that we are not waiting for an invisible man in the sky but are here on this Earth together as one people, one race and with one responibility - living together in peace.

[NevaforLeadership]

Exactly.

[grumbles]

Gosh what does a Pope do when he's laid off????????????????

[VegasWolf]

Male porn industry ?

[richdibo]

The pope getting laid!