(NOQ REPORT) – The Vatican is making a plea to over a billion practicing Catholics around the globe as they have nearly depleted their financial reserves. This comes following a 2020 in which many of the standard revenue sources, including donations, dried up for them and most other religious groups due to Covid-19 lockdowns.
But are they really as broke as they claim? The key to understanding this is the fact that they’re focused on financial reserves. To the laymen, this may seem to equate to their savings account, but that’s not actually the case. The Vatican still holds billions—and some claim it’s likely into the trillions—of dollars worth of property, shell companies, and other assets that help them hide a vast amount of accumulated wealth over the centuries.
They classify their financial reserves as based on revenue generated within a given year. This is the pot from which they pay most of their operating expenses. Some of the surplus from their reserves is carried over into the new fiscal year, but much of it goes into their less transparent coffers. Maintaining a balanced but modest financial reserve allows them to continue to ask for money from their followers while still showing a need for it.
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