GERMANY
National Catholic Reporter
Christa Pongratz-Lippitt | Feb. 19, 2015
The Cologne archdiocese, Germany’s largest and the world’s richest diocese, has for the first time published its financial accounts revealing assets of 3.35 billion euros ($3.82 billion) at the end of 2013.
The assets were essentially bound in reserves to cover long-term obligations, vicar-general Stefan Hesse said when he presented the accounts at a press conference on Ash Wednesday.
At the end of 2013, the archdiocese was in possession of 2.4 billion euros ($2.73 billion) worth of stocks, funds and company holdings and 646 million euros ($736 million) of tangible assets, including schools and conference buildings. Reserves for long-term obligations and risks amounted to 1.66 billion euros ($1.89 billion). Pension reserves for the archdiocese’s 4,000 priests came to 410 million euros ($467 million).
In 2013, the archdiocese received 573 million euros ($503 million) from church taxes paid by the 2 million Catholics belonging to the Cologne archdiocese. After expenses such as church employee salaries had been subtracted, the archdiocese had a surplus of 59 million euros ($52 million).
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.