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Red ink in vatican city

Tom Grill/Corbis

By Jacob Stokes

Red ink in vatican city

The currency markets haven’t been granting any indulgences to the Vatican, which recently reported a deficit of $14.3 million for 2007. Announcing the loss, an official said it was “due above all to a sudden, very strong reversal of trend in fluctuations of the rate of exchange, especially the U.S. dollar.” The Vatican, which pays most of its bills in euros, gets a big chunk of its donations from U.S. Roman Catholics, who gave $18.7 million last year, the highest of any country. (Italy’s faithful came in second, with $8.6 million.) The 2007 deficit—revenues of $371 million vs. expenses of $386 million—follows three consecutive years of surpluses. Among the current pockets of profitability: real estate and museum operations, with some 4.3 million visitors to the Sistine Chapel and other sites. The Vatican has released financial statements since 1981, when Pope John Paul II introduced the practice.