How the Vatican manages money and where Pope Leo XIV might find more

The world's smallest country has a big budget problem.

- BY NICOLE WINFIELD

The Vatican doesn’t tax its residents or issue bonds. It primarily finances the Catholic Church's central government through donations that have been plunging, ticket sales for the Vatican Museums, as well as income from investments and an underperforming real estate portfolio.

The last year the Holy See published a consolidated budget, in 2022, it projected 770 million euros ($878 million), with the bulk paying for embassies around the world and Vatican media operations. In recent years, it hasn’t been able to cover costs.

That leaves Pope Leo XIV facing challenges to drum up the funds needed to pull his city-state out of the red.

Withering donations

Anyone can donate money to the Vatican, but the regular sources come in two main forms.

Canon law requires bishops around the world to pay an annual fee, with amounts varying and at bishops' discretion “according to the resources of their dioceses.” U.S. bishops contributed over one-third of the $22 million (19.3 million euros) collected annually under the provision from 2021-2023, according to Vatican data.

The other main source of annual donations is more well-known to ordinary Catholics: Peter’s Pence, a special collection usually taken on the last Sunday of June. From 2021-2023, individual Catholics in the U.S. gave an average $27 million (23.7 million euros) to Peter’s Pence, more than half the global total.