Holy See closes 2024 with a surplus of 1.6 million euro

By Vatican News

The Secretariat for the Economy has published the Holy See’s 2024 Consolidated Financial Statements, which show a surplus of 1.6 million euro.

The result represents a significant recovery compared to the deficit of 51.2 million euro recorded the previous year.

The report, published on Wednesday, highlights a clear improvement and, while prudently aware that full financial sustainability is a long-term goal, a clearly positive direction can be observed.

The overall improvement is based on a significant reduction of the deficit, which fell by almost 50%, going from 83 million to 44 million euro.

This was made possible by an increase of 79 million euro in revenues (coming mainly from donations and hospital management) and by efforts to control expenses, which partially offset inflation and the rise in personnel costs.

Performance in financial management was particularly positive, generating positive results amounting to 46 million euro, exceeding 2023 levels and playing a key role in covering the operating deficit.

This performance was chiefly due to the realization of capital gains produced with the help of the Investment Committee.

Financial analysis

Excluding hospital entities, the Holy See closed with a surplus of 18.7 million euro.

The Secretariat for the Economy underlined the need for prudence in interpreting this figure, since this improvement is mainly due to an increase in donations and to a one-off accounting impact of investments, linked to the sale of long-standing investments.

This progress will therefore need to be confirmed in the coming years.

Apostolic Mission and Pontifical Funds

Finally, analyzing the expenditure items, it is possible to verify the consistency between the mission and its concrete economic implementation.

The functions of the various Dicasteries express the different facets of the Apostolic Mission.

These Curial institutions offer services to the Church at a global level: from support for local Churches to initiatives for the unity of the faith, from the Pope’s communication to the promotion of peace and human development, from liturgical events to the care of the Vatican heritage, to the Pontifical Representations.

The report then goes into detail on the items into which the 393.29 million euro allocated to the Apostolic Mission and Pontifical Funds (excluding hospitals) are divided.

The vast majority of these funds (83%) is concentrated in five priority sectors.

The main item, which represents 37% of the total (146.40 million euro), is dedicated to supporting local Churches in difficulty and in specific contexts of evangelization.

The next most significant areas of expenditure are worship and evangelization (14%), communication of the message (12%), presence in the world through Apostolic Nunciatures (10%), and the service of charity (10%).

The remaining 17% covers other activities such as the Organization of Ecclesial Life, Historic Assets, and Academic Institutions.