2023-08-16 02:42:00
August 15, 2023 / 7:42 pm
The Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) published its annual report last week. The APSA is in charge of the administration and management of the immovable and movable property of the Holy See. According to L´Osservatore Romanothe document highlights the 32.37 million euros that the organization contributed in 2022 to the total operating budget of the Vatican.
In the apostolic constitution Preach the Gospelpublished almost a year ago, Pope Francis indicates that “through understandable, effective and transparent procedures, APSA is called to contribute to the evangelizing mission of the Church”.
In this sense, Mons. Nunzio Galantino, president of APSA, stated that “today we are all convinced that the reputation of the Church in the management of what is entrusted to it by the generosity of the faithful is a prerequisite for the credibility of your advertisement”. Here, then, “one of the reasons that justify the publication, for the third consecutive year, of the balance”.
In the report, the bishop wrote: “The transparency of figures, achievements and defined procedures is one of the tools available to us to remove unfounded suspicions about the scope of the Church’s assets, its administration or the fulfillment of the duties of justice. , such as the payment of due taxes and other tributes”.
According to Bishop Galantino, due to the “uncertain global economic outlook, APSA maintained a conservative investment policy,” adding that “—like any other country in Europe— the Vatican suffered the negative economic consequences of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.”
After earning 20 million euros in 2021 from investments in shares, bonds, gold and currencies, APSA lost more than 6 million euros from its investments in 2022, according to the report. But he earned more than 52 million euros with his real estate holdings.
The document also highlights the 6 million euros paid by the APSA for direct and indirect taxes derived from the management and possession of real estate in Italian territory. The report specifies that the payment of taxes to the Italian State was made on “real estate not used strictly for religious purposes.”
In total, for the fiscal year of 2022, the Vatican paid 6.05 million euros for the Single Municipal Tax (IMU) and 2.91 million euros for the Corporate Income Tax (IRES), of which only through APSA, he paid 4.65 million for IMU and 2.01 million for IRES.
Archbishop Galantino also noted that the Vatican granted rent reductions of 30% to 50% to some individuals and small businesses during and immediately after the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns, in response to concerns from Pope Francis that the people did not lose their jobs during the pandemic. Now, the bishop said, the office is working to convince non-paying tenants to comply with their obligations.
The APSA, the report says, directly manages 4,072 properties, including churches, Vatican administrative buildings, Vatican residences for officials and apartments rented to Holy See workers. It also has spaces for commercial offices and farmland. Only 19% of the properties are leased on the open market and 12% are rented, at very low costs, to Vatican employees. The rest is used by officials of the Holy See and religious orders.
The Vatican’s real estate estate includes 473 parcels of land, including 112 cultivated for hay, grain or other agricultural products and 28 olive groves.
The APSA estimated the total value of the assets it controls at more than 2,800 million euros (just over 3,000 million dollars). In this regard, Archbishop Galantino wrote that “the Church, in its history of centuries, thanks to the generosity of the faithful, has been able to dispose of the necessary resources to continue the mission that Jesus entrusted to it.”
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The APSA provides what is necessary for the ordinary activity of the Roman Curia, taking care of the treasury, accounting, purchasing and other services. The organism has a President, who is assisted by a Secretary and by a Council, made up of Cardinals, bishops, priests and lay people, who help in the elaboration of the entity’s strategic lines and in the evaluation of its results.
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