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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 11, 6 July 1888, Page 13

The Brussels Courier has a summary account of the Budget of the Pope. The annual expenses of the Papacy are said to amount to about 7,000,000 francs. The burden is substantially met by the Peter s penny, " which was originally." observes the Courier "an English idea. But in 1861, after the twenty provinces of the Papal States had been reduced to five, the Peter's penny was quickened to new life in Belgium," The first incitement to the generous endowment of the Papacy by the freewill offerings of the faithful, rich and poor, was given by the diocese of Ghent. Ids example was quickly followed in other lands. Until the year 1870 the average yearly result of the Peter's penny was 7,117,000 francs. Since that date it has constituted the sole income of the Pope, and in no single year haa been lower than 6,000,000 franoa. During the present Jubilee year the Bishops of Latin Christendom have handed in to the Pope the extraordinary sum of 32.6J0.000 francs. The Jubilee Mafl9 of Leo XIII. brought nearly 3,000,000 francs. The Papal Treasury is consequently in a good condition. The " Work for the Extension of the Faith, fonnded at Lyons in 1822, provides the Papacy with a fund for missions : it has contributed from 1822 to 1887 no less a sum than 220,000,Q00 francs. Its contribution for the last twelve months "»^ t0 «,««,000 francs, of which Germany contributed only 409,000 franca and Austria only 80,000 francs, as the reporter observe! with regret, r