c. 1997 Religion News Service
VATICAN CITY _ In some ways, the Vatican has moved deftly into the modern marketing era. It sells reproductions of prized museum pieces and has a Web site. It markets compact discs of Pope John Paul II reciting the rosary and singing hymns.
But the one modern concept the Roman Catholic Church has not latched onto is privatization. And that may be costing the church dearly.
While the Holy See on Tuesday (Nov. 18) forecast a 1998 operating surplus of $560,000, a tiny fraction of its annual $200 million budget, it also revealed the gain would be considerably larger if not for the projected $24 million loss from its newspaper, which runs no advertisements, and its radio station, which airs no commercials.
The pope shelved proposals a few years ago to introduce the profit concept in the newspaper Osservatore Romano and in Vatican Radio, a change that undoubtedly would offset at least part of the annual loss.
Of course, few Vatican officials would outwardly suggest selling off the Roman curia, or bureaucracy, whose losses are set at a whopping $25.6 million next year. The costs include the congregations, councils and tribunals in the Vatican, as well as papal embassies around the world and the personnel to staff all the offices.
Cardinal Edmund Szoka, who recently resigned as president of the Economic Affairs office, which prepares the budget, noted that recent employee pension hikes accounted for a large portion of the loss, projected to swell $4.3 million above 1997 figures.”If there weren’t some increases every year”in employee benefits,”I’d be surprised,”he said.
Not all the news is bleak. For starters, the overall figures do not include Peter’s Pence, the donations made by laity to the private fund the pope distributes to charities of his choosing. Those funds have generally grown annually, and are about $65 million a year.
Donations from dioceses around the world are forecast to top $25 million in 1998, a $2 million increase over 1997 projections and $5 million more than in 1996.”I want to emphasize again the importance of the contributions from the dioceses,”Szoka said.”These contributions have increased each year since 1992. They have become a major source of income for the Holy See and without them, we would be in difficulty.” Dioceses are required by Canon law to contribute to the Holy See’s budget.
The Vatican would also be in bad shape if not for the money it is expected to rake in from its vast real estate holdings around the world, which most commonly bring in revenue from rent and sales. The properties are expected to net $18 million in 1998, a 30 percent increase over 1997 projections.
Profits from the sale of stocks and bonds are forecast to yield $32.8 million next year, down slightly from $35 million expected this year.”The investments of the Holy See are very, very conservative,”Szoka said.
However, he would not say whether the Vatican, like many financial advisers and economists, anticipates a cooling off period next year.”The Vatican is not in the business of predicting the world economy,”he said.
MJP END HEILBRONNER
