Every cloud has a silver lining and there's some good news out of the Global financal Crisis at last.
The effects of the global financial crisis put the Holy See's budget in the red (for the third consecutive year), the Vatican said in a statement on Saturday.
The quaintly named Holy See (the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome) reportedly "ended the year 2009 with a loss of 4.1 million euros, compared to its loss of 911,514 euros in 2008 and 9 million euros in 2007. Over the course of the year, the Vatican spent 254.2 million and had income of 250.1 million euros."
That's three successive annual losses, totalling 14 million euros, due not only to the GFC but also to the ever increasing number of forced payouts to the church's child abuse victims. Good. There are not enough new priests to replace those that are retiring (or going to prison). Good. Their leader, Mr. Ratzinger is in danger of being arrested when he arrives in England in a few weeks. Good. Thanks to the Vatican's own corrupt obstruction of justice, their congregations are dwindling at grass root level. Good.