VATICAN CITY, Holy See – With donations down 25 percent, revenues from the Vatican Museums slashed 85 percent and millions of euros spent to support struggling tenants, the coronavirus pandemic has left a big hole in Pope Francis’ finances.
“It’s a difficult period for the Vatican, as elsewhere in the world,” a senior official with knowledge of the Vatican’s 2020 accounts told AFP, while adding that “the financial situation is not alarming”.
Just one branch of the Vatican’s organisation, the Roman Curia, had a financial shortfall “of the order of 90 million euros” ($108 million) in 2020, compared with a deficit of 11 million in 2019, he said.
Factoring separately i…
Keep on reading: Year of Covid plunges Vatican deeper into the red