The Vatican reveals for the first time its properties.. 5,171 properties in Italy and abroad

Vatican Square (Reuters)

The Vatican revealed, on Saturday, for the first time, information about its real estate assets, and said that it owns more than five thousand properties, as part of the most detailed financial disclosure process.

The information came in two documents: a consolidated 2020 financial statement for the Holy See and the first ever general budget for the Holy See's Heritage Administration.

The Holy See's Heritage Department is a kind of public accounting office that manages real estate and investments, pays salaries and acts as a procurement and human resource management office.

The Vatican released more than 50 pages of financial details from the two documents, each of which included an unprecedented number of illustrations and maps, and two interviews explaining those details.

The 30-page budget for the Holy See's Heritage Department showed that the Vatican owns 4,051 properties in Italy and about 1,120 abroad, not including its embassies abroad.

The documents indicate that about 14% of Italian real estate was rented at market rates, while other properties were rented at reduced rates, many of them to church employees.

About 40% of real estate is institutional buildings such as schools, monasteries and hospitals.

The information also indicated that the Holy See's Heritage Department owns real estate in the form of investments in prestigious areas in London, Geneva, Lausanne and Paris.

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