THE POPE'S INCOME AND WHAT HE DOES WITH IT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8974, 11 February 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE POPE'S INCOME AND WHAT HE DOES WITH IT.

A fork ion* diplomatist accredited to Rome gives the following account of the Pope's revenue and of the way in which it is spent. It is derived from three sources. 1. The interest of an enormous sum left by Pio Nonoto the pontifical treasury and invested in the English public funds, The 'interest amounts to about three millions of lire, or about £12.5,000. Leo XIII. Isa great speculator, and subscribes to the Italian loans in order to sell when the value rises and invest the profits in the English Consolidated Fund 2. The proceeds of Peter's Pence. This branch of the revenue lias suffered greatly in recent years, but, nevertheless, the average amounts to about two millions of lire, or about £83,000. These two sums, which represent £'208,000 per annum, constitute the ordinary ineomo of His Holiness. It is distributed by the chamberlain among the cardinals residing in Rome—about £1050 per annum for each cardinal—among the prelates of the Papal Court, the secretaries, the nuncios, the guards of the Pontiff's body, etc .'5. The extraordinary part of the Papal revenue is derived from the receipts of the Apostolic Chancery. The items include the sums received for titles of nobility, Papal decorations, benedictions in the article of death, privileges of the altar, private chapels, dispensations, ecclesiastical titles, and many other things. This department yields about two and a half millions of lire, £104,000 per annum. The .vhole annual income of Leo XIII., therefore, reaches the enormous sum of about£3oo,ooo.