Brought to light: German Catholic archdiocese reveals more wealth than Vatican

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)

2/20/2015 (1 day ago)

Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

In an effort on the part of Pope Francis to make the finances of the Catholic Church more transparent, surprising things have been learned. The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Cologne in Germany has since disclosed it is worth $3.82 billion in U.S. dollars, making it richer than the Vatican.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The publication of the first full report of its wealth is an attempt to make the finances of the German Church above board.

This "house cleaning" is in response to the removal of the Bishop of Limburg, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst in October of 2013 by Pope Francis. It had been learned that the bishop spent 31 million Euros from secret funds on a new luxury residence. The bishop had been derided with the names of "gold-plated bishop" and "bishop of bling." In March of last year, the Pope accepted his resignation and the bishop has since been reassigned to another position in the Vatican.

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Pressed by the pope to reform its finances, the Vatican has consolidated the various, as well as hidden accounts of its many departments and found it has assets of about $3 billion in U.S. dollars, Cardinal George Pell, the Holy See's secretary for the economy, says.

Announcing their report on Ash Wednesday, the start of the Lenten period of self-denial and reflection, Cologne church officials stressed the extensive holdings helped care for two million Catholics, 60,000 staff and 1,200 churches and chapels.

"The archdiocese doesn't sell products or earn profits from its services, so it has to finance itself mostly from its assets," financial director Hermann Schon says.

Germany's Catholic and Protestant churches both benefit from a church tax imposed on all their members. Cologne reaped 573 million Euros from the tax in 2013 and spent over half of that on pastoral and charity work.

German dioceses had traditionally published their annual operating budgets, but not a full balance sheet.

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Germany's largest diocese, Cologne had a 2012-operating budget of 939 million Euros. Its 2013 balance sheet, drawn up under guidelines for large German companies and approved by an independent auditor, showed its assets at 3.35 billion.

Its landmark Gothic cathedral along the Rhine is listed as being worth only 27 Euros - one euro for each of the 26 land parcels beneath it and one euro for the priceless building.

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