Signs of the times. Pope Francis has raised the alarm over the Vatican’s financial deficit, urging expense cuts, transparency, and external funding to sustain its global mission. As Catholicism grows in less wealthy regions, the challenge of financing a global church intensifies.
Once, September 20 was the occasion for popes to reminisce about the loss of the Papal States on that day in 1870. One century later, St. Paul VI put that issue to rest and made clear that the papacy had no nostalgia for temporal power: September 20, 1870, actually liberated the successors of Peter from a heavy obstacle to the spiritual mission of the church.
These days, the Vatican has a different (though not new) kind of practical problem, such as the money needed to finance its activities. That was made clear in the remarkable letter by Pope Francis to the College of Cardinals on September 20, which raised an alarm on the financial situation. The pope made it clear that it was necessary to cut expenses, find external funding sources, adopt transparency in managing assets, and synergize institutions with a more prosperous budget with those with less money.
A letter with historical significance
This letter to the cardinals is a historical document that will have a particular place in the history of the papacy and the Roman Curia. Francis admits that the Vatican’s finances were one of the most important issues that the cardinals discussed at the “general congregations” before the conclave of 2013. Since then, Francis has taken steps to address the problem, but the Vatican continues to run a significant deficit every year (close to 80 million euros last year).
The financial situation will likely also be one of the major themes at the next conclave. The speculum episcopi, the ideal model for the bishops (and not just for the bishop of Rome), might soon sound like the job description for recruiting leaders of other organizations to oversee budgets and track expenses, develop fundraising strategies, and achieve good governance practices.
This letter is also extraordinary because it is one of the few times that Francis has communicated with the College of Cardinals, whom he has rarely consulted during his pontificate. It reminds us that beneath the modern Roman Curia, made of permanent dicasteries (after Sixtus V’s reform of 1588), there is an older model, the consistorial model, that counted on the entire College of Cardinals gathered in Rome. The coexistence of these different models is one of the open questions about the future of synodality and how it will impact the way of governing the universal church in the Vatican.
Francis’ letter also talks about “the need for each institution to work to find external resources for its mission, setting an example of transparent and responsible management at the service of the church”.
This work of finding “external resources” might be a prelude to the recruitment in the Vatican of specialized personnel (fundraisers, grant officers, etc.). But this hiring of new experts could be, at least initially, an additional cost for the finances of the Holy See. It might also entail the risk of the so-called “mission drift,” that is, the gradual change in the focus of an organization from its original mission to other areas that may not be aligned with its core values.
This mission drift sometimes happens when nonprofit institutions require money. But the Vatican’s present financial situation raises some doubts on the feasibility of one of the goals of Francis’ 2022 reform of the Roman Curia: hiring more lay people in leadership positions. Unlike priests and religious, laypeople—especially those with families to support—require at least a living wage, if not a competitive salary. This also means higher costs for personnel.
An alternative could be having some of these lay experts remunerated by external donors or funding institutions. However, this possible development must be evaluated in light of the political, economic, and administrative history of the Roman Curia and the centuries-long efforts to eradicate corruption, nepotism, and conflicts of interest.
The Catholic Church is now more global and bigger than it used to be: it’s a larger family with more needs. The reforms of the Roman Curia in the last 60 years (especially by St. Paul VI in 1967, St. John Paul II in 1988, and Pope Francis in 2022) all presided over an expansion of the Vatican in terms of employees. Between St. John XXIII and St. Paul VI, members of the Roman Curia more than doubled, from 1,322 in 1961 to 3,146 in 1977. Now it’s a workforce of roughly 5,000 — and many dicasteries are evidently understaffed.
Other elements are crucial for understanding how the September 20 letter on the Vatican’s finances indicates long-term trends in global Catholicism—trends that have become more evident during Francis’ pontificate.
“A more global Catholic Church means a bigger role for “the peripheries”. This makes the church more Catholic but does not solve the problem of how to provide more with fewer resources.”
The demographic decline has an impact on church finances, both locally and at the Vatican.
This decline is particularly noticeable in wealthy countries, which, especially since the 19th century, have been major donors to their local churches and the Vatican itself.
A more global Catholic Church means a bigger role for “the peripheries.” This makes the church more Catholic but does not solve the problem of how to provide more with fewer resources, as emerging churches in the “global south” often lack the financial means of those in Europe and North America. It is instructive to look at the list (published in 2022) of nations where Catholics offer the most financial support to the pope’s solidarity fund.
The impact of globalization on the church’s finances
Secondly, there are the internal changes in churches in different countries. It is true that the US Catholic Church is composed more and more of Latino/a Catholics, but it is also true that religiously unaffiliated Latinos are seeing the largest growth of any faith category among Latinos. In 2022, some 30% of U.S. Latino adults were religiously unaffiliated, up from 10% in 2010, according to a poll from Pew. These changes affect the financial prospects of a church nationally, as well as its ability and inclination to give to the Vatican.
“The politically prophetic message of Pope Francis on capitalism and the global economic system has made fundraising for the Vatican even more challenging.”
Third, revelations or rumors of scandals have undoubtedly hurt donations to the Vatican. But the real sign of our times is that the politically prophetic message of Pope Francis on capitalism and the global economic system has made fundraising for the Vatican even more challenging. Ecclesially, Pope Francis’ difficult relationship with progressive Catholicism in wealthy European countries with generous benefactors (Germany, but also Belgium, which Francis is visiting this week) creates a particular situation. It is a shift from the 19th and 20th centuries when the churches in Europe and North America were feeding the Vatican and the pope’s standing on issues that were close to the heart of militant and ultramontane Catholics. But the political orientation of the Vatican in global affairs has changed under Francis, and this has costs.
Finally, the United States is no longer a quick and easy solution for the financial emergencies of the Vatican. In 1922, after the death of Benedict XV, the cardinal camerlengo found the vault of the pope literally empty and had to ask the U.S. cardinals to bring $210,400.09 for the organization of the conclave that elected Pius XI. In 1936, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, then Secretary of State of Pius XI, left for the United States “with an empty suitcase” in order to return with a suitcase full of dollars —one million, to be exact. This account was shared by Bishop Sergio Pagano, an eminent historian and, for 27 years, the prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives (since 2019, “Vatican Apostolic Archives”), in an illuminating, recently published interview book.
Back then, these donations solved many problems for a Vatican that was much smaller than it is today. American Catholics are still the most generous to “Peter’s Pence,” and there is certainly no shortage of super-rich American Catholics, but today, their attention is directed toward causes that do not always align with Pope Francis’.
Global Catholicism has become tied to different contexts and worldviews based not only in the Euro-Atlantic but also in Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. For the global Vatican of today, wealth is no longer as easily accessible as it used to be during the “American century.” It was certainly different when the papacy was for the West as an ally in the ideological clash against atheistic Communism.
Reproduced with permission from La Croix International.
