Vatican accounts show a positive balance
For the first time in four years, the Vatican’s accounts are out of the red. The financial balances of the Holy See and the Vatican City State for fiscal year 2010 are in fact positive, in the amounts of 9.8 and 21 million Euros respectively. These results were presented at the conclusion of the Cardinalatial Council to study organizational and economic problems of the Holy See, which was held from June 30 to July 1, 2001, at the Vatican, with the Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone presiding.
The Press Office of the Holy See on July 2, 2011, published the accounts of the Holy See and the Vatican City State for the year 2010. After three years of deficits, the budget of the Holy See delivered in 2010 a positive balance of almost 10 million Euros. The consolidated income of the Holy See in 2010 amounted to 245,195 million Euros, exceeding by 9.8 million the expenses, which amounted to 235,347 million Euros.
In the previous year, the Holy See had ended fiscal year 2009 with a dead loss of 4.1 million Euros. “The 2010 budget appears to reinforce, even with all the elements of uncertainty and instability that the world economic and financial situation still presents, a positive trend that had already been evident in fiscal year 2009, which had had to absorb the negative effects of the financial crisis of 2008,” the communiqué explained.
The Vatican State likewise showed a positive balance, returning to the situation recorded three years earlier. The balance sheet of the Governorate of the Vatican City State shows 255,890,112 Euros of income and 234,847,011 Euros of expenses. The positive balance therefore amounts to 21,043,101 Euros. This outcome is due in particular to brisk business at the Vatican Museums, which have an ever-increasing visitor count, and to “the recovery of the financial markets”.
In 2010 the Vatican City State numbered 1,876 employees, a large majority of them laymen. In late December 2010, the Holy See for its part reckoned 2,806 employees within the various Curial organs, 1,100 ecclesiastics and religious and 1,700 laymen.
The Council of Cardinals announced the amount of St. Peter’s Pence, a collection organized each year around the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, June 29, which is part of the financial income of the Holy See. In 2010 this worldwide collection totaled 10.1 million Euros less than the previous year. The Vatican explains that this difference is due to exceptional gifts that were made in 2009. Finally it should be noted that the dioceses throughout the world contributed toward the expenses of the Holy See. (Sources: apic/imedia/radiovatican – DICI no. 238 dated July 16, 2011)
