Vatican Finds Hundreds Of Millions Of Euros ‘Tucked Away’

Reuters ^ | 04 December 2014

[Lorianne]

The Vatican's economy minister has said hundreds of millions of euros were found "tucked away" in accounts of various Holy See departments without having appeared in the city-state's balance sheets.

In an article for Britain's Catholic Herald Magazine to be published on Friday, Australian Cardinal George Pell wrote that the discovery meant overall Vatican finances were in better shape than previously believed.

"In fact, we have discovered that the situation is much healthier than it seemed, because some hundreds of millions of euros were tucked away in particular sectional accounts and did not appear on the balance sheet," he wrote.

[Raycpa]

Reverse Enron

[SkyDancer]

Now that has to be one big couch.

[C210N]

Euro’s, dollars, rubles, lira, meh...

Now, if hundreds of “hundreds of millions of gold ingots tucked away”, that would be a slightly different story.

[RetiredTexasVet]

Well, in that case, it is nearly Christmas so it is the time of giving so I’m sure the Pope will be doling the entire amount out to the poor.

[Bryanw92]

When a coin in the coffer rings, another soul from Purgatory springs.

[Lorianne]

It’s interesting that the EU auditors have refused to close their accounts for the last 8 years because they can’t get the numbers to balance.

[Vendome]

Learned that trick from the Knights Templar eh?

Well, you never did find the bulk of the money you were after...

[Hugin]

Gosh, I’m happy when I find a 20 tucked away in a jacket pocket.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Silly. These were funds not "in excess" and not under-the-table shady, but just in different departmental budgets which were not brough under the purview of modern central accounting. It's the old subsidiarity thing: departments raising and spending their own budgets.

Keep in mind that the Vatican, with no military and a negligible economy, has fungible assets worth about a billion dollars, a mere drop in the bucket compared to, say, Harvard University’s $27 billion endowment.

Sorry to deflate anybody' fantasies about awesome Vatican wealth.

I am amazed at Pell (an honest manand a smart one) not getting ahead of the spin on this one.

Now, I'm not naive enough to say there hasn't been, over the years, embezzlement and probably suitases of cash flying hither and thither. The whole thing needs an intensive audit, which is what Pell is there for. But this particular thing was neither the unmasking or crookery nor the discovery of pots of extra money. It was just (as I'm reading it) the discovery of antique accounting systems rolling along for better or for worse in an ad hoc family-business mode, without much oversight from the top.

[Two Kids' Dad]

Catholics should only tithe 7% for the next year or two. That’ll get their books back in balance.

[Lorianne]

I once found a $50 bill tucked away in a passport case from a long ago trip. I though I had won the lottery!

[faithhopecharity]

Surprising they didn’t discover all that money sooner, given how lumpy it must have made the bed ......?

[Secret Agent Man]

gee lots of pedophile priest court cases have been settled by the ‘poor’ RCC.

wonder how this played into their claims as to what they could pay.

[bajabaja]

Tired of being Catholic here, and I agree. Sadly.

[Mom MD]

That may be true for cash, but when I was at the vatican about 15 years ago, they openly bragged they had 25% of the worlds fine art and treasure in their museums. The vatican has obscene amounts of wealth.

[Texas Songwriter]

I have read that the Vatican hold title to 1/3 of the land in Italy, and is the largest investor of bonds and stocks in the entire world. I have never read the actual numbers.

[Mrs. Don-o]

It is obscene FOR US to think of religous art treasures as a kind of currency, a form of fungible wealth. These are the precious religious cultural heritage of all Christians --- I could say, of the human race --- for which the Church serves --- sacrificially -- as guardian.

What would you rather have them do? Sell them? So they can adorn the walls of banks or airport concourses? Maybe they can go into the private collections of gay playboy fine arts speculators, or on the walls of some Saudi prince? Heck, sell the chalices to some Michelin 3-star restaurants for rich people's dining pleasure. They will be amused by the recollection that they were made to hold the Lord's precious Blood.

It is quite wrong to think of art this way. These objects were not given to the Church as private property in the market sense. They were given in trust, to be preserved, carefully curated and shared in a God-pleasing way --- and where poor people by the tens of thousands can see them: they were not made only for the rich. To sell them off so Melinda Gates or the Italian Parliament can flaunt them as status symbols, would be the sort of thing Henry VIII or the Soviet Ministry of Culture would do: a looting of the Church's patrimony, and a violation of fiduciary trust.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"I have never read the actual numbers."

Imagine my surprise.

[Mom MD]

Rome can keep all the wealth it wants. I just find it highly hypocritical to talk about how financially strapped they are on one hand, and brag about their accumulated wealth on the other. And I doubt Rome sacrifices to keep its great wealth.
We wont go into the fact that a lot of the works were extorted from their makers, or the fact that Christ had no place to lay His head, but the organization that claims to have His direct representative on earth is the wealthiest on earth. Or that they wealthiest organization on earth has so many impoverished adherents that they still expect a monetary tribute from.
Does Christ approve of Rome? I don’t know, I guess we will find out eventually. But they will have to answer to the same standards the rest of us have.
The Church is made up of all true believers, is not an earthly organization and has no wealth - except the wealth of Christ Himself. Dont confuse the Church with the church in Rome.