Vatican Reports Profit

The Vatican (POPE) is raking it in:

The Vatican on Wednesday released its best financial report in eight years, saying it had a surplus of 9.7 million euros ($12.4 million) in 2005 despite extraordinary costs of 7 million euros ($8.9 million) for the funeral of Pope John Paul II and the election of his successor.
Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani, who heads the Vatican’s office for economic affairs, called it “good news” as he presented the Holy See’s annual financial statement after it was examined last week by international auditors and presented to Pope Benedict XVI.
In recent years, the Vatican’s accounts have been battered by labor costs, a falling dollar and the costs of the Vatican’s growing diplomatic mission while experts expressed concern that donations might drop from dioceses in the United States and elsewhere struggling to meet settlements in the sex-abuse scandal.
In 2004, the Vatican netted 3 million euros after four years in the red.

I’m raising the Holy See to a near-term outperform.

Posted by on July 12th, 2006 at 1:58 pm


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