Posted on 12/11/2019 5:01:24 PM PST by ebb tide
NEW YORK, December 11, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) Only about 10 percent of donations made to the Holy Sees Peters Pence actually goes to the poor while the majority of the annual collection, worth about $55 million USD, goes to plug Vatican budget deficits, a top U.S. financial newspaper is claiming.
Catholics from all over the world donate to a special papal fund called Peters Pence every year. The money is ostensibly used to support charitable enterprises dear to the pontiffs heart. Today the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) alleged in a piece titled Vatican Uses Donations for the Poor to Plug Its Budget Deficit that most of the over $55 million collected by the fund annually goes toward plugging the hole in the Vaticans own administrative budget.
According to the WSJs unnamed sources, only 10% is spent on charitable works.
The little-publicized breakdown of how the Holy See spends Peters Pence, known only among senior Vatican officials, is raising concern among some Catholic Church leaders that the faithful are being misled about the use of their donations, which could further hurt the credibility of the Vaticans financial management under Pope Francis, wrote Francis X. Rocca for the WSJ.
According to the Vaticans own webpage, Peters Pence is the name given to the financial support offered by the faithful to the Holy Father as a sign of their sharing in the concern of the Successor of Peter for the many different needs of the Universal Church and for the relief of those most in need.
The custom of sending money to the pontiff is believed to have begun with the Anglo-Saxons in the 11th century, when every household in England gave one penny towards the papal fund. The modern Peters Pence, international in scope, was established in 1871 by Pope Pius XI. The collection is taken up from church-attending Catholics on the Sunday closest to June 29, the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.
As the WSJ reported, the official Peters Pence website gives little indication that much of the funds may actually be going to support the Vaticans administrative budget.
The Peters Pence collection is a gesture of solidarity. Through it, every member of the faithful can participate in the Popes activity. It is an activity that supports the most needy and ecclesial communities in difficulty who approach the Apostolic See for help, the site reads.
In its Works Realized section, readers can find a gallery of recent donations made by Pope Francis to various communities around the world, which range from 100,000 ($110,794 US) sent to Albania in the wake of this Novembers earthquake to undisclosed sums given to a boys school in Syria.
However, the WSJ notes that under church law, the pope may use Peters Pence fund in any way that serves his ministry, including the support of his administration. There is also an allusion on the Peters Pence webpage to funding ecclesial structures, but in a way that suggests these are predominantly in mission territories:
The Popes charitable works, supported by Peters Pence, extend [ ] to the whole of humanity, at whose service the structures of the Church exist, the webpage states.
For this reason, Peters Pence also contributes to the support of the Apostolic See and the activities of the Holy See, as Pope John Paul II recalled: "It is known that the needs of the apostolate and ecclesial communities are growing especially in mission territory. [ ]
But about 75% of the Peters Pence fund is used to fill a budgetary hole at the Vatican, the WSJs sources said.
In 2018, the budget deficit reached roughly 70 million on total spending of about 300 million, reflecting chronic inefficiencies, rising wage costs and hits to investment income, the financial broadsheet reported.
The WSJ also quoted its sources in saying that donations to Peters Pence have dropped from over 60 million ($66,842,700 US) in 2017 to over 50 million ($55 million US), thanks to Catholics concern about the clerical sex abuse crisis and lack of financial transparency in the Vatican.
Meanwhile, the sources say that the funds assets are shrinking, too, dropping to about 600 million ($668 million US) from the 700 million ($779.5 million US) it comprised early in Francis reign. This is apparently because of unfortunate investments.
Vatican investments and other aspects of its financial endeavors have been much in the news of late, thanks to the thwarted attempts of Cardinal Pell and others to stem suspected money-laundering and other forms of economic corruption, this Octobers Vatican police raid on the Secretariat of State, revelations that an Italian businessman made huge profits on a Vatican purchase of a luxury property in London, and the discovery that Peters Pence helped finance a biographical film about Elton John that contained depictions of homosexual activity.
Beverly Stevens, editor of Regina Magazine, once taught Finance at the University of Maryland's European Military Campus and was a financial writer for 20 years. She told LifeSiteNews that Vatican leadership is firmly to blame for the misuse of Peters Pence.
All organizations reflect the management policies and ethos of their head, Stevens said via social media.
The Church is no different. Based on what we have seen at the Vatican level in this pontificate (investing in posh London flats & Elton John biopics) and the diocesan level (Bishop Bransfield's million-dollar lifestyle, Archbishop Gregory's Atlanta McMansion, Cardinal Tobin's live-in Italian actor) it looks pretty simple, she continued.
The operating principle is 'talk big about the poor and the marginalized while living like princes' -- and don't be too 'rigid' about accounting rules or other pesky details.
In November, Pope Francis defended the use of Peters Pence in investment schemes, saying, When the money from Peters Pence arrives, what do I do? I put it in a drawer? No. This is bad administration. I try to make an investment and when I need to give, when there is a need, throughout the year, the money is taken and that capital does not devalue, it stays the same or it increases a bit.
Isn't Bergoglio here making use of that evil "capitalism" that he is constantly bashing?
Alternatively, a collection of sex toys.
10% sounds high - I figured about 1% or less actually gets the poor.
Being a financial backer of money losing gay bio-pics is a violation of the laity’s trust
Ping
Anyone still giving money to the ImPopester is a fool.
That’s the way I figure it. I’ll stick to supporting folks I know need help and my parish; I ain’t tippin’ Francis.
They must spend at least $55 million on Robes and stuff
No, they’re mostly recycled.
10%? that worse than Red Cross who only pilfers 82% for management.
No, theyre mostly recycled.
so all the new green outfits for Global Warming are recycled ,LOL
Well, homosexual prostitutes and drugs are expensive, you know.
Vatican cops bust drug-fueled gay orgy at home of cardinals aide
Vatican cardinal was at drug-fueled homosexual party, and Pope knows it
Pretty standard for a lot of the professional charities out there.
we know many folks who donate to their own parishes ..and to Saint Vincent de Paul Society to help the poor.. and to a few additional causes they know are good
and they refuse to offer anything to Peter’s Pence or the several additional requested assessments for the Church hierarchy
I haven’t given a nickel to Peter’s Pence since Francis/Bergoglio got the gig in 2013. With that said, the real problem here is that they were hyping PP as for programs to help the poor and needy. I had always understood the Peter’s Pence collection to be for general operating expenses of the papacy, not as some kind of Catholic Charities donation. As such, I’m not shocked if 90% went to general Vatican expenses as that’s what I thought it was for. The problem here is that, likely as an effort to encourage donors who’ve had enough of all the scandals, they disingenuously pretended this was for charities that help the needy rather than to just run the Vatican.
If I was raising kids I’d tell them to stay away from any man with a catholic white color!
Stopped about 10 years ago when they started giving millions to the children the priest abused and abused and abused. Have not given one penny since.
I figure if you give money to a foundation, most of it gets spent on women and booze. But if you give money directly to the poor, you cut out the middle man and the poor can buy their own women and booze.
I quit the church over 30 years ago when they rotated a known pedophile priest into our parish.
(Quantities limited.)
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