A story in the Mexican digital newspaper, El Cronista, reported that Pope Francis has written to his cardinals asking for their support for reforms of the Roman Curia, including reducing a significant deficit that the Holy See is carrying.
According to the balance sheet for 2023, released by Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the operating deficit was €83 million, €5 million more than the previous year, at a time when donations from the faithful are declining.
Other than its property assets and the Vatican Museums, the only income the Vatican has is donations from the richest Catholic churches (the US, Italy, Germany, Spain, South Korea), and the so-called ‘Peter’s Pence’, donations offered to the Pope by the faithful from all over the world, some €48 million in 2023.
In his letter, the Pope calls for ” each Institution to work on finding external resources for its mission” and concrete proposals for cost reduction, “so that our service is carried out in a spirit of essentiality, avoiding the superfluous and …encouraging mutual collaboration and synergies”.
Read the full story (in Spanish) here.