Vatican's budget

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fineca

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Please help. There is an ex-Catholic who accuses the Church of being hypocritical, having riches and not helping the poor enough etc. The Vatican has a budget of more than a 100 million dollars - how much good they could do with all that money instead of having all kinds of luxurious things in the Vatican.

Where can I find out what the budget consists of etc?
Thanks!
E
 
fineca said:
Please help. There is an ex-Catholic who accuses the Church of being hypocritical, having riches and not helping the poor enough etc. The Vatican has a budget of more than a 100 million dollars - how much good they could do with all that money instead of having all kinds of luxurious things in the Vatican.

Where can I find out what the budget consists of etc?
Thanks!
E
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I don’t have the figures you seek, but look at it this way: if the Church sold off all of its works of art and fabulous churches, they’d make billions – but that would eventually peter out. With the huge number of tourists that each year visit the Vatican Museums alone, the Church raises money on a regular basis. This money, and whatever other income the Church has, can then be turned to doing the Lord’s work consistently, rather than for a limited time.

It’s not as if the Cardinals and the Pope are hoarding money and buying up beachfront property and luxury cars.

Peace,
Dante
 
I think there’s more than one side to this issue. I think if the Church were to sell the precious works of art, more money would be gained than by any fees they charge for museums. Some of those works of art are priceless – it would probably be in the trillions not billions! But some Churchmen I have seen in the media have said they have a duty to preserve this art for humanity as opposed to it being in some private collection.

But I think the poster was asking about the Vatican’s yearly operating budget, not what it could make if it sold off stuff.

The Vatican’s yearly operating budget (the figure you cited sounds like it would be in the ball park) is extremely tiny compared to say the budget of a major university or major corporation. It sounds like a lot compared to what individuals and families have though of course.

There is I believe a book turned into a movie called The Shoes of a Fisherman where the newly elected pope decides in the midst of certain world circumstances to sell of all the art in the Vatican. It’s a good family-friendly movie to watch.
 
This article from 2004 showed the Vatican running a deficit. Didn’t find the current year, but I’m sure it’s available somewhere.
 
Catholicism’s Charitiable branches are wide reaching…at least ten fold over any other charitable organization. THe pretty cathedral argument is supid and baseless.
 
fineca said:
Please help. There is an ex-Catholic who accuses the Church of being hypocritical, having riches and not helping the poor enough etc. The Vatican has a budget of more than a 100 million dollars - how much good they could do with all that money instead of having all kinds of luxurious things in the Vatican.

Where can I find out what the budget consists of etc?
Thanks!
E
Click to expand...
Here in the southern part of the United States, the biggest Churches are Protestant. I don’t hear anyone calling for these “megachurches” to sell their buildings and real estate to give the proceeds to the poor.

You might benefit from reading a book entitled, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization.

Hope this helps. :tiphat:
 
…Judas the Iscariot made this same argument. Is that the company you want to keep?
 
fineca said:
Please help. There is an ex-Catholic who accuses the Church of being hypocritical, having riches and not helping the poor enough etc. The Vatican has a budget of more than a 100 million dollars - how much good they could do with all that money instead of having all kinds of luxurious things in the Vatican.

Where can I find out what the budget consists of etc?
Thanks!
E
Click to expand...
So why does your friend not apply to work at the Vatican and get involved in all that big money? Should your friend try I believe they will get something for their effort.
JimG said:
This article from 2004 showed the Vatican running a deficit. Didn’t find the current year, but I’m sure it’s available somewhere.
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I was listening to an Economics professor discussing this issue during the time period she said the problem was a falling US dollar (currency exchange) and she could not believe an International organization as this was not hedging (mulitple currency contracts functioning as insurance) all income. Her point was they did not seem to know a lot about money. Well may be it is not really a business 😃
 
Thanks, I found similar info, but I was looking for more specific info regarding what exactly the Vatican budget consists of…or is it secret info?
 
American sports teams have a greater budget and assets than the Vatican. :rolleyes:
 
In this day and time, 100 million dollars is chump-change. Recently, an executive from one of the big investment houses retired and got a severence package of about 400 million. Today, Barclay’s (United Kingdom) acquired ABN-Amro (Netherlands) for 91.10 billion dollars. So, to assert that the Vatican is soooo rich and luxurious is quite inaccurate.

What did Jesus say about casting stones?:rolleyes:
 
fineca said:
Thanks, I found similar info, but I was looking for more specific info regarding what exactly the Vatican budget consists of…or is it secret info?
Click to expand...
It’s not secret. It’s published annually. I believe there are actually two separate budgets but I don’t know if these are actually separate or just ways of presenting the data.

cdowk.org/catholic_advance/nnews.html

“The budget figures were reviewed July 4 by members of the Council of Cardinals for the Study of the Organizational and Economic Problems of the Holy See.
The cardinals are given **two separate budget **reports: the budget of the Holy See, including the Roman Curia, Vatican diplomatic missions around the world, Vatican media outlets and Vatican investments; and the budget of Vatican City State, including the post office and Vatican Museums.
In addition, the cardinals were given the results of the 2005 Peter’s Pence collection, which is not part of the budget since the money is used by the pope for charity, disaster relief and aid to churches in developing countries.
The 2005 collection brought in $59.4 million, an increase of $7.7 million over 2004.”

I don’t think there’s any denying that the Catholic Church is rich in terms of her real estate and works of art. In terms of the holy Roman Church (the diocese of Rome), she has priceless works of art such as contained in the Sistine Chapel. But if all these pieces of art were sold at an auction (I guess the Sistine Chapel is immovable but other works of art could be sold), a lot of them may end up in some private collection when they should be preserved as part of mankind’s patrimony.
 
Try a search on these forums for this subject. I believe the annual budget of the Vatican, which is an independent country, is equivalent to the annual budget of the University of Chicago. There might even be something on the CA home page library list.
 
The financial info for 2005 was released in July of last year, so I am guessing the 2006 stats will be released around the same time.

I grow tired of hearing about the riches of the Vatican, unless they are speaking of the Eucharist, the seat of Peter, etc. 😉 When looking at it that way, by gosh we are the richest on earth!👍
 
I believe that the Holy See budget is the budget of the archdiocese of Rome. So it includes all the Roman charity hospitals, churches, diocesan training programs, seminaries, etc. that the Pope runs as Rome’s bishop.

The Vatican City State budget deals with everything else.
 
I would guess the Vatican’s budget of $100 million is less than, say, the budget of public schools in a medium-sized American city. It’s really not that much.

They’re able to do quite a lot with it because all the priests, bishops, and cardinals not to mention all the religious sisters & brothers come with pretty low salary demands.
 
How’d you like to pay the heating bill for just the sistine chapel. . How bout the cost of just maintaining the structural integrity of such old buildings…
imagine paying plumbers to inspect the plumbing system yearly…
wonder how much it costs to insure the property…
I know one good quality candle costs more than I’m willing to pay…
how much does it cost to have the garbage hauled away after millions have been to visit St. Peters’ square…
Wonder how much an outside auditing group must get paid to audit their books for insurance and workmans comp…
Do we intend to sell priceless pieces of art, world history, to pay the electrical bill…
 
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