The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1894-04-20
THE POPE'S FINANCES.
A Continued Decrease in the Rev
enues of the Vatican.
Some of the Sources of Income Upen
Which the Head of the Roman
Church Has to Depend
Have FaiIed

Since the heavy losses made by the
pope a year or more ago the finances
of the vatican have been superinte ed
with great care. 1t is known. saws a
Paris paper, that a committee of pre-
lateS and several cardinals exist at
Rome whose duty it is to regulate the
use of the sums of money which flow
into the treasury of the vatican. These
sums come principally from two
sources: The revenues of the property
possessed by the pope and the gifts of
the faithful known as Peters pence
The property of the vatican is of
various kinds, but the greater part of
it consists of money and bonds paced
in England and Fance, uDIer contro.
of the Paris house of Rothschild. Pc
ter's pence is an annual revenue which
is far from being fixed. In good years
the total of the sum received from a..
countries of the world reaches :. Se. .oO'
frHncs. Sometimes it is as low as
6,O"O 900 and even 5000. 900
This has been the case for the last
great part to the dlscord between the
roya.ists and the French Catno.ic
produced by the republican po.icy OF
thirds and often three-quarters of
Peters pence And in France il is the
rOyaIists who prove themselves mo-r
generous But since the adhesion OF
Leo NH. to the republic many OF
them, more royalist than Catholic.
have closed their purses to the pope
However. despite all this. French bIsh-
ops still forward the largest sums to
his holiness. Thus the bishop of Nante
sent a few days ago loo. 600 francs
from his flock as their gift to the vat
lean treasury.
Italy contributes only a small part
of the revenue-a few hundred thou
sand francs year The Romans show
themselves in this regard less generous
than other ItaiIanS- On the other
hand, the Anglo-Saxon countries
England. Ireland, Australia and the
United States-begin to send impor
tant sums If Catholicism contInues
to grow in these countries it is easy u
see that in time the vatican will draw
considerable sums from them.
Again. there are the royal courts.
such as Austria, which send annually
rich presents to the pope. This is even
true of princes of ancient ItaiIan fam
lies Francis IL, ex-kIng of Naples.
and Marie Theresa, formerly granc
duchess of Tuscany, never fail to send
their offerings. which consist of sever
al thousands of francs. The cOInpte
de Chambord was accustomed to send
annually $4,000 francs: the count of
Paris sends the same sum.
The expenses of the vatican,
amount annually to more than 1000
900 francs They are rcsu-.ted as
follows: For the personal wants o.
the pope, 500. 900 francs; for the
cardinals, 200, 900; for poor dioceses.
400. ZOO; administration of the vatican.
1,SO0, 900; secretary of state, Loco, 600
employees and ablegates, 500 900; sup
port of schools and poor, 200, 900.
The cardinals at Rome live at the ex-
pense of the pope. The income of each
from this source is al least - 900 francs
The secretary of state is charged with
upholding relations with foreign gov
ernments by the mediation of nuncIoS.
The four most i'm mportant-Paris, Wen
ma, Madrid and LIsbon-each receive
an allowance of 90, 900 francs a year.
The last jubilee of Pope Leo Mi.
brought to the vatican 5000, ooo francs
AT the first. celebrated five years ago.
1000, 900 francs were received In the
course of years the pope has introduced
a number of economies in the different
branches of the vatican service and for
that reason he has been called mIserly.
This accusation Is not merited; the
economics became necessary in a state
whose expenses are considerable and
whose revenues continue to diminish.
Leo Mi. has many reasons to follow
the example of his illustrIous pred-crs-
sor, SIxtus, as 1t is d fficult in the pres
ent time To count on the generosity of
the faithful.