© Reuters
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The Vatican has published information about its real estate for the first time, BTA reports. According to the published data, the Holy See owns over 5,000 properties. Of these properties, 4051 are in Italy and about 1120 are abroad. This does not include Vatican embassies abroad.
Only 14% of Italian property in the Vatican is rented at market prices, the rest is rented at lower prices, many to church officials. About 40% of the properties are institutional buildings, such as schools, monasteries and hospitals.
The Vatican owns properties in London, Geneva, Lausanne, Paris and others. One of the buildings in the chic South Kensington of London has suffered huge losses since it was purchased as an investment by the Vatican Secretariat of State in 2014. On Tuesday, a trial began against 10 people involved in this investment, including a cardinal. They have all been charged with financial abuse, money laundering, fraud, extortion and abuse of office.
Last year, Pope Francis stripped the Secretariat of State of control of its funds and transferred them to the Holy See’s Heritage Administration, overseen by the Secretariat of Economics.
Another document presented today shows that for 2020 the Vatican budget has a deficit of 64.8 million euros, which is less than the deficit of 79.2 million euros in 2019.
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