POMEGRANATE – The Vatican warned on Friday that it had almost depleted its financial reserves from previous donations to cover budget deficits in recent years, while urging it to continue donating from the faithful to keep the Holy See afloat and Pope Francis’ ministry underway.
The Vatican published its 2021 budget in its most recent effort for greater financial transparency amid an expected budget deficit of 50 million euros this year. The aim is to assure donors that their money is being well spent, after years of mismanagement that is currently the focus of a Vatican corruption investigation.
Francisco’s Economy Minister, Rev. Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, said the coronavirus pandemic, which reduced donations and also revenue from closed Vatican Museums, would contribute to a projected 30% reduction in revenue to 213 million euros in 2021, from 307 million euros in 2019, the last year available.
He noted that the Vatican achieved significant cost cuts during the blockade last year, with drastically reduced travel, consultation fees, conference and assembly costs and postponing unnecessary repairs and maintenance. In an interview with Vatican Media, Guerrero said he hoped to cut spending even further by 8% in 2021, without resorting to layoffs, which Francisco is opposed to.
But even so, the expected € 50 million deficit for 2021 will again require plunging into previous donor reserves to cover expenses. Guerrero confirmed that in 2019, the Vatican used 27.2 million euros in Peter’s Pence reserves to cover its operating costs, in addition to the 53.8 million euros in revenue from the Peter’s Pence fund that year.
In 2020, he estimated that the Vatican received 40 million euros in reserves from Peter’s Pence and that a similar amount was expected in 2021.
Peter’s Pence funds, usually offered during an annual mass collection, are billed as a concrete way to help the pope in his ministry and charities, but are also used to manage the Holy See bureaucracy.
“This recourse to Peter’s Pence reserves in recent years means that the fund’s liquidity is running out and with the current crisis it is very likely that in 2022 we will have to rely to some extent on APSA’s assets,” he said. referring to the Vatican’s central bank, which manages the Holy See’s real estate and other financial investments.
Peter’s Pence’s funds were examined amid an investigation by Vatican prosecutors into the Secretary of State’s € 350 million investment in a London property development, part of which was apparently financed by Peter’s Pence.
Several Italian brokers and dealers, as well as some Vatican officials, are under investigation on suspicion of having stolen millions in fees from the Holy See.