Vatican cash crisis: Sex abuse scandals are ‘driving away donations and have lost the Holy See €44m in a year’
Gianluigi Nuzzi said the Vatican’s property empire made a loss for the first time
Pope Francis’s attempts at reform are being ‘blocked and sabotaged’, he claims
The Vatican previously tried to put Nuzzi on trial for publishing leaked secrets
By TIM STICKINGS
DAILYMAIL.COM
21 October 2019
The Vatican is rapidly losing money with donations plummeting as sex abuse scandals damage the Catholic Church’s reputation, according to a new book.
Gianluigi Nuzzi writes that the Vatican lost nearly €44million (£38million) last year while its property empire made a loss for the first time.
The Italian journalist, whom the Vatican attempted to put on trial for publishing leaked secrets in 2016, said attempted reforms by Pope Francis were being ‘anaesthetised, blocked and sabotaged’ by Vatican insiders.
In the book, Universal Judgment, he claims that the Vatican faces a possible default on its debts by 2023, according to The Times.
His book is based on 3,000 confidential documents, which allegedly show that donations have fallen by 40 per cent in the space of three years.
Total donations dropped from more than €100million in 2016 to a mere €60million in the most recent figures, according to Nuzzi’s research.
Vatican bosses encourage worshippers to donate to the collection, known as Peter’s Pence, in order to ‘participate in the Pope’s activity’.
However, most of the donations are now used to cover the Vatican’s general costs rather than for philanthropic work, it is claimed.
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