POPE LEO'S INCOME

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 1, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 46.

POPE LEO'S INCOME.

A foreign 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 Nono to the pontifical treasury, and invested in the English public funds. This interest amounts to about 3,000,000 lire, or about £125,000. Leo XIII. is a 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 has suffered greatly in recent years, but, nevertheless, the average amounts to about 2,000,000 lire, or about £83,000. These two sums, which represent £208,000 per annum, constitute the ordinary income of his holiness. It is distributed by the chamberlain among the cardinals residing in Rome—about £1,050 per annum for each cardinal—among the prelates of the Papal court, the secretaries, the nuncios, the guards of the Pontiff's body, etc. 3. 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 2,500,000 lire, or £104,000 per annum. The whole annual income of Leo XIII., therefore, reaches the enormous sum of about £300,000.—Pall Mall Gazette.