Ailing Pope Francis Battling Cardinals Over Ballooning Vatican Financial Deficit – On His 13th Day in the Hospital, Pontiff Launches ‘Commission on Donations for the Holy See’
If we thought that the situation surrounding Pope Francis hospitalization for double pneumonia with a bout of kidney failure was dramatic, we actually didn’t know the half of it.
It arises today that in the days that preceded his hospitalization for double pneumonia, Pope Francis was engaged in a fierce battle against some of his own top cardinals.
Francis was experiencing firm resistance from them regarding ways to plug a widening hole in the Vatican’s finances.
Reuters reported:
“Three days before his hospitalization, Francis ordered the creation of a new high-level commission to encourage donations to the headquarters of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church. The new ‘Commission on Donations for the Holy See’, announced by the Vatican on Wednesday as Francis was spending his 13th day in hospital, was formed after the pope faced push back against his proposals for Vatican budget cuts from within the Roman Curia.”
In late 2024, Vatican department chiefs and senior cardinals insisted on opposing spending cuts and specially against the Pope’s plan to seek outside funding to fix the deficit.
Francis has tried to fix the budget for years. He has cut the cardinals’ salaries three times since 2021, and ordered a ‘zero deficit’ agenda.
While the Vatican has operated with a deficit for years.
But add to that the whole different problem of the growing liabilities within the mismanaged Vatican’s pension fund.
“’The budget problems are going to force the Vatican to do a lot of things it doesn’t want to do’, said Rev. Tom Reese, a Jesuit priest and commentator who has written about the Vatican’s finances. The Vatican may have to limit its charitable works or down-size its diplomatic presence at embassies across the world, he said. ‘The footprint of the pope could be severely reduced’, said Reese. ‘If you can’t pay your bills, you can’t do much’.”
The pope has recently suggested to seek outside funding to balance expenses and avoid staffing cuts.
But multiple cardinals questioned the move, saying it could ‘trigger conflicts of interest for the Church’.
“The Vatican, a microstate within Rome, has limited fiscal options. It does not issue debt, sell bonds, or levy taxes. A 2010 monetary agreement with the EU limits the Vatican to only issuing a fixed amount of euro coins each year, initially set at a sum of 2.3 million euros.
The global Catholic headquarters instead has three main income streams. It takes donations through the pope’s official fund. It has an investment portfolio, which includes stock investments and more than 5,000 properties, the vast majority in Italy. And it makes money from admissions to the Vatican Museums.”
The fear is that donors can stop sending money if they understand it is being used for pension liabilities rather than the Church’s charitable work.
Read more:
Red Francis Stacked the College of Cardinals To Ensure Next Pontiff Will Be a Hard Leftist Like Him
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