Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 3 — The Southern Cross, April 23, 1987
Vatican Holdings Estimated At $570 Million
BY JOHN THAVIS
VATICAN CITY (NC) — The Vatican’s financial
holdings, including real estate, total about $570 million, but
less than half of that amount produces income, said Car
dinal Giuseppe Caprio, a top Vatican financial official.
It was the first time a Vatican official has publicly reveal
ed the amount of the Holy See’s “patrimony” of in
vestments and land holdings. Cardinal Caprio said the
disclosure should help put an end to the “rumors about the
Oi immense riches of the Vatican.”
“As you can see, we have nothing to hide,” he said in a
rare interview published April 16 by the Italian financial
newspaper II Sole 24 Ore. Over the years, some press
estimates of the worth of the “patrimony” have exceeded
$10 billion.
“Let’s say the total of the patrimony of the Holy See, in
cluding real estate and deeds, is 730 billion lire (about $572
million at the current exchange rate). But more than half of
this patrimony does not produce income, and instead in
volves expenses,” said Cardinal Caprio, president of the
Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See.
“The productive patrimony does not go beyond 350 billion
lire (about $275 million),” the cardinal said. The rest is tied
up in offices and other properties, including church-run
schools and a hospital, all of which involve annual
maintenance expense, he said.
In a telephone interview with National Catholic News Ser
vice April 16, Cardinal Caprio confirmed the figures and
said their publication was part of an effort to convince
Catholics worldwide of the Vatican’s financial distress.
“I hope the good faithful will now realize that the appeal
by the cardinals and the pope is truly necessary” and “cor
responds to the facts,” the cardinal told NC News.
In March, a council of cardinals appealed to the world’s
Easter Message —
(Continued from page 1)
pope recalled the church’s basic teaching on married love,
saying it is a “way of giving” expressed “through the flesh
in an act which from the very beginning God willed as a seal
of the giving.”
The pope also reminded people not to forget the poor, the
hungry, the imprisoned, the sick and the dying.
“They always remain children of God, for God’s gift
knows no regrets,” he said. “Each one deserves respect
and support.”
The pope’s busiest day during Holy Week was Good Fri
day, April 17. In what has become a personal tradition to
emphasize the sacrament of penance,, he walked into St.
Peter’s Basilica and, entering one of the many confessional
boxes, listened for more than an hour as 11 people confessed
their sins. The group included an Italian air force officer, a
newlywed couple, an Ethiopian refugee and a Vietnamese
seminarian.
Later, the pope and some 20 cardinals participated in
ceremonies to mark the passion of Christ. More than 10,000
people in St. Peter’s watched as the pope removed his shoes
‘ and knelt for the adoration of the cross.
The same day, the pope led a nighttime Way of the Cross
at Rome’s Colosseum, carrying a large crucifix and stopp
ing at each of the 14 stations to pray. Hundreds of torches lit
the marble ruins of the ancient stadium in the background,
which is respected by the church as the site where early
Christians were martyred.
The meditations for the stations were written this year by
Cardinal Miguel Obando Bravo of Managua, Nicaragua, ac
cording to Vatican Radio. The meditations recalled that
human beings condemned Christ to death and urged that
neither modern politics nor state powers “deceive our cons
ciences” and condemn the Lord again.
Cardinal Obando Bravo has been a strong critic of
Nicaragua’s Sandinista government for its policy toward
the church, and particularly for the government’s expul
sion of two church leaders and the closing of a Catholic
radio station.
The outdoor Way of the Cross, begun at the Colosseum by
Pope Paul VI in 1964, was televised this year to more than
W 30 countries in five continents, the Vatican said.
On Easter Saturday, the pope led a lengthy vigil service
in St. Peter’s, during which 35 adults were baptized.
“You have been brought together by the faith, which
gives life with the power of the spirit,” the pope told the
newly baptized. They came from 17 different countries, in
cluding the Soviet Union, Hungary and Syria. As in past
years, the most people — 10 — were from South Korea.
The pope also sent a message to Rome’s Rabbi Elio Toaff,
recalling his historic visit to a Rome synagogue a year
earlier The pope said he hoped the Jewish Passover,
celebrated in the same period as Easter this year, would
“fill your hearts with joy and support you on the way of
freedom and hope.”
bishops to increase contributions to Peter’s Pence, the fund
that has helped cover Vatican spending shortfalls in recent
years. Along with the appeal they sent, for the first time,
detailed budget figures from 1985.
“In the letter to the bishops, the cardinals refer to the
many fantasies about Vatican riches, noting that, apart
from the various exaggerations, the base figures’ are
false,” Cardinal Caprio said in the newspaper interview.
For example, he said, the many art works in the Vatican
— often cited as an example of Vatican wealth — have great
cultural value, but for the Holy See represent expenses for
custody, maintenance and restoration.
The Vatican’s patrimony dates from the time ot the 1929
Lateran treaty, when Italy gave the Vatican a lump-sum
payment in exchange for the remainder of papal territory
in the country. Much of the money was used for new
buildings and the remainder established as the
“patrimony,” which has been administered by a special
Vatican investment office
The investments yielded enough income to cover annual
operating expenses until the mid-1960s. Cardinal Caprio
said. After that, the shortfall was made up by tne Peter’s
Pence collection, an annual fund used traditionally for
special papal projects. But in recent years, as the shortfall
has grown, Peter’s Pence has not been enough and the
Vatican has had to dip into the patrimony to make up the
difference, he said.
For example, the Vatican’s 1986 operating expense short
fall was about $56 million, while Peter’s Pence raised about
$32 million. The Vatican expects its 1987 shortfall to reach
about $63 million.
Cardinal Caprio, whose office puts together the annual
budget for Vatican departments, cited two main reasons for
the increasing expenses :
— The growth in Vatican offices (from 37 to 47) since the
Second Vatican Council; in the same period, he said, per
sonnel has increased by half.
— Total expenses for salaries increased tenfold from
1970-1985, largely because of high Italian inflation.
Cardinal Caprio said he hoped the Vatican eventually
would decide to make public its annual budget, in addition
to sending the information to the world’s bishops.
ABORTION'S SOLUTION
IS SIMPLE. . .
ASHLEY — Three months of age. Her mom, although
a teenage unwed mother, made the choice for life.
IT'S JUST NOT EASY!
Fourteen years and twenty million dead babies later, America is still groping for the solution to “the abortion problem."
The solution is deceptively simple. Continue educating the American public; continue working with our state and
federal representatives to stop the taxpayer funding of anti-life organizations; and pass the Paramount Human Life Amend
ment which will restore the right to life of all of God's children.
But it won't happen unless we make it happen.
We must pray and work and give of our time and our money today, tomorrow and every day until we have stopped
the babyslaughter once and for all.
You have a choice: You can join the American Life League today and work with others dedicated to the Life Prin
ciples, the Paramount Human Life Amendment and the total protection of ALL of God's children.
Or; You can turn the page and TRY to forget that this baby was lucky. Twenty million of his brothers and sisters
were scraped, burned or sucked to shreds in a horribly brutal and painful death.
Love Life! Choose Life! Join A.L.L. today!
AMERICAN LIFE LEAGUE, P.O. Box 1350, Stafford, VA 22554
(703) 659-4171 — WATCH FOR OUR INSERT ON MAY 7,1987