This Holy See As part of its most detailed financial disclosure ever, the company released information on its real estate holdings for the first time, showing that it owns more than 5,000 properties.
The information released on Saturday is contained in two documents-one is the consolidated financial statements of the Holy See for 2020, and the other is the first public budget of the Pontifical Heritage Administration (Apsa).
Apsa is an integrated accounting office that manages real estate and investments, pays salaries, and acts as a purchasing office and human resources department.
Between the two documents — each with an unprecedented number of pie charts, graphs, and maps — and two explanatory interviews, the Vatican released more than 50 pages of financial material.
The 30-page Apsa budget shows that it owns 4,051 properties in the U.S. Italy There are about 1,120 abroad, excluding its embassies around the world.
Only about 14% of Italian properties are rented out at market prices, while other properties are rented out at low prices, many of which are rented out to church employees. About 40% are institutional buildings such as schools, monasteries and hospitals.
The documents show that Apsa owns properties as investments in high-end areas of London, Geneva, Lausanne and Paris.
A building in South Kensington, London, was purchased by the Vatican State Secretariat as an investment in 2014 and caused huge losses.
Tuesday, the 10-person trial In connection with its purchase, including the famous Cardinal Angelo Becky, starting from the Vatican. They are charged with financial crimes including corruption, money laundering, fraud, extortion and abuse of power.
Father Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, head of the Vatican’s Secretariat of Economic Affairs (SPE), told the official Vatican news website that the building will be sold soon.
He stated that this trial will be a “turning point” in the credibility of the Vatican on economic issues, and that similar incidents will not repeat itself due to the measures taken thereafter.
Last year, Pope Francis deprived the State Secretariat of control of its funds, transferred them to Apsa and supervised by SPE.
A separate consolidated financial statement of the Holy See released on Saturday shows that the 2020 deficit is 64.8 million euros (55 million pounds), which is lower than the 79.2 million euros in 2019.
The Holy See’s budget includes the central administration of the Roman Catholic Church, Curia, which is responsible for overseeing the management of the 1.3 billion global church, its global diplomatic representation and media operations.
Vatican City, including the Vatican Museums and the Vatican Bank, have separate budgets.
To fill the 2020 deficit, approximately 50 million euros were drawn from Peter’s pennies, which is a donation fund to help the Pope carry out the church’s global work.
The Covid-19 pandemic has hit the Vatican’s revenue severely in 2020. St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museums (the latter is a cash cow and received about 6 million paying tourists in 2019) will be closed or only partially open for most of 2020.
