Vatican Projecting Record Deficit of $50 Million, Double 1984’s

On the eve of a major gathering of the world’s Roman Catholic bishops, the College of Cardinals ended a three-day meeting here Saturday by projecting a record $50-million Vatican budget deficit this year, close to double the $29.5-million deficit of 1984.

The cardinals’ meeting, which drew 122 of the church’s 150 princes to Rome, focused mainly on proposed reforms of the governing body of the church, the Curia, whose administrative structure has been the subject of a special study since the early 1970s. But the cardinals also approved the budget report by a select committee of their colleagues appointed by the Pope to watch over Vatican finances, and they urged local churches to help make up the deficit.

Fears have been raised before the cardinals’ meeting that their Curia deliberations would result in a reshuffling of the Vatican bureaucracy, in which important offices now held by church liberals would be downgraded.

Curia ‘Modernization’

But differences over proposed “streamlining” changes in the Curia, such as upgrading the Vatican “foreign ministry” (the Council for Public Affairs) to the status of Congregation, and changing the names of most Vatican secretariats to “councils,” left the churchmen undecided. However, the cardinals said in a statement that they all agreed on the need to “study a modernization of the Curia” and plan to forward suggestions to Pope John Paul II within a month.

Among other comments on the Curia, the cardinals congratulated the Pope on his success in “internationalizing” the church bureaucracy, almost entirely dominated by Italians for centuries. In a special report, they noted that Italian domination of senior Curia offices has dropped from 88% to 44% in the last two decades. They urged creation of special scholarships and training programs to prepare more candidates from the Third World for Curia offices.

The cardinals’ concerns over budget and administration came on the eve of the Extraordinary World Synod of Roman Catholic Bishops, in which many of them will participate, beginning with solemn papal Mass at St. Peter’s Basicila today.

Lengthy Papal Sermon

The pontiff is expected to deliver a lengthy sermon to the 165 voting representatives to the synod, laying out the approaches he expects them to take regarding the review he asked them to make of church reforms begun by the Second Vatican Council 20 years ago.

Among the synod members are 102 presidents of National Bishops’ Conferences, heads of Vatican congregations and representatives of religious orders, most of whom have submitted advance commentaries on the progress of Vatican II reforms, which brought sweeping changes in the world church.

Liberal Catholics, particularly in North America and Britain, have expressed fears that the synod was called by the Pope in order to stem some of the reform momentum, but Vatican organizers of the synod denied such an intention and said they expect little conflict during the two-week meeting.

In their statement concerning the budget deficit, the cardinals expressed their “strong concern” that the financial pinch raises a risk of “compromising” the efficiency of the Vatican’s workings.

Covered by ‘Peter’s Pence’

The statement pointedly noted that the 1984 deficit was almost fully covered by “Peter’s Pence,” an annual special collection of the world church, which amounted to just a little less than $26 million. The far greater deficit anticipated in 1985--caused partially by the weakened American dollar and by a 15% pay increase necessary to avoid strikes by Vatican employees--will require greater contributions from local Catholic churches, the statement said.

The Vatican budget covers expenses for the church’s central administration, Vatican radio, diplomatic missions and the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. Operating costs and profits of the Vatican bank, officially called the Institute for Religious Works, are not included in the budget, which the church began making public in 1981.