Reply #12: Here's an article from 2002 that might help shed some light. [View All]

[mcscajun]

The Vatican “does not have a responsibility, not in a strict sense,” for a diocese's finances, said Cardinal Edmund C. Szoka, who headed the Vatican's budget planning office through much of the 1990s.
“The bishop in a diocese is responsible for his diocese,” he told The Associated Press.

(snip)

In July, however, the Vatican reported its first deficit in nine years -- about $3 million -- and blamed the shortfall on the worldwide financial slump aggravated by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

(snip)

Church officials say the Vatican's real estate holdings, mainly buildings in and around Vatican City, are listed on the books as worth about $650 million.

But that doesn't include what are considered priceless holdings such as St. Peter's Basilica, part of the trust for humanity. Its worth is listed as a symbolic “one euro,” a Vatican accountant, Ivan Ruggiero, told a news conference in July.

http://www.telegram.com/static/crisisinthechurch/121202.html