Before being hospitalized for double pneumonia, Pope Francis was fighting the firm resistance of some of his own cardinals on how to cover a growing gap in the Vatican’s finances.
Three days before its hospitalization, Francisco ordered the creation of a new high -level commission to promote donations to the headquarters of the Catholic Church, which has 1.4 billion members.
The new “Donations Commission for the Holy See”, which the Vatican announced on Wednesday while Francisco spent his thirteenth day in the hospital, was created after the Pope’s proposals to cut the budget faced an opposition from within the Roman curia.
In a closed door meeting at the end of last year, the department leaders of the Vatican, including high -ranking cardinals, argued against the cuts and against the Argentine Pope’s desire to seek external financing to solve the deficit, said two high positions to Reuters.
The charges asked not to be appointed due to the sensitive nature of the information. Francisco has been trying to fix the budget for several years. He has cut the salaries of the cardinals three times since 2021 and demanded a “zero deficit” program in September.
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Pope’s efforts seem to have had little impact.
Although the Vatican has not published a complete budget report since 2022, the last set of accounts, approved in mid -2024, included a deficit of 83 million euros (87 million dollars), the two sources said.
Reuters could not verify the deficit figure independently.
Although the Vatican has operated with deficit for years, rebuilding the accounts and resorting to the dividends of its investment income, the gap has grown significantly in recent years. In 2022, the deficit declared by the Vatican was 33 million euros.
Two cardinals who supervise the Vatican budget did not accept requests for reuters and did not provide current budget information. The Vatican did not respond to the request for comments.
With Reuters information:
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