Vatican has published information about its property for the first time

Vatican - Today, the Vatican publicly released information about the properties it owns for the first time. In the most detailed report so far on its financial status, it announced that it owns more than 5,000 properties, most of them in Italy. This was reported by Reuters.

The information was part of two documents: the consolidated financial statement of the Holy See, which is the central administration of the Vatican, for the last year and the budget of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), which was presented publicly for the first time. This is a sort of general accounting office that manages properties and investments, pays salaries, and functions as a purchasing office and human resources department.

Each document contains an unprecedented amount of graphs and maps. The APSA budget is 30 pages long, and according to it, the Vatican owns 4,051 properties in Italy and approximately 1,120 abroad, not including embassies around the world. Only 14 percent of Italian properties were rented at market prices. The rest were rented at reduced rates, mostly to church employees. About 40 percent consists of institutional buildings, such as schools, monasteries, and hospitals.

The documents also show that APSA owns properties as investments in luxury areas of London, Geneva, Lausanne, and Paris. A well-known investment became the purchase of a building in the South Kensington district of London in 2014, which turned out to be a loss. Due to the purchase of the building, a trial will begin on Tuesday in the Vatican against ten people, including a well-known cardinal. They are accused of financial crimes, including embezzlement, money laundering, fraud, extortion, and abuse of power.

The report showed that the budget deficit last year decreased to €64.8 million (CZK 1.7 billion) from €79.2 million in 2019, aided by lower spending.

The budget of the Holy See includes the central administration of the Roman Catholic Church, known as the Curia, which oversees the management of the Church worldwide, its diplomatic representations, and media activities. It differs from the budget of the city-state, which also includes museums, a bank, or postal services.