VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
The Vatican Secretary of State shares his thoughts at the presentation of the new Regulations governing the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See
Alessandro Speciale
Rome
The Vatican’s financial transparency issue has more to do with the crisis than with the Vatican document leak scandal: the Holy See must proceed in “the gradual, but effective, reduction of costs in the face of a continuing inability to increase revenues,” the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone told employees of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See in a speech this morning.
The Regulations – which will be presented officially to the press next Thursday – were in fact promulgated last 22 February and were probably prepared long before that date. In the face of the global crisis, “the Holy See”, must also proceed in “the gradual, but effective, reduction of costs in the face of a continuing inability to increase revenues at least in proportion to the deficits as recently recorded in the consolidated balances,” Bertone said.
In actual fact, the Holy See’s balance sheets have seen fluctuations in recent years but it was only in 2011 that it came dangerously close to being in the red, with a deficit of almost 15 million Euros. It should be stressed, however, that after reaching a peak of 253 million Euros in 2009, the Holy See’s revenues have been gradually decreasing, while last year expenses went through the roof, increasing by 30 million Euros in 2011 alone. As a result, dioceses across the world were asked to make an extra big effort to gather an unlikely five million Euros more than the previous year. Even the Vatican bank, the IOR, had to reduce its contributions from a maximum of 55 million to 49 million Euros.
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