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In yesterday’s post, we outlined a general observation that basically asserted that the reason for Francis’s worse than usual “bad mood” recently, may be the result of money problems.

Today we make more observations about the 2015 Vatican financial performance, while we wait for detailed financial statements to appear in the public domain.

We observed that the 2015 financials reports were 8 months late in appearing and that extraordinary entries, having a “one off” nature, appear in the limited information that has been made available. One of these entries, a €50.0 million figure, described as “from Vatican Bank” is actually larger than the entire net income generated from the consolidated Vatican operations.

For CONTEXT purposes, one must be cognizant of the fact that it is “financial considerations” that are really the driving force behind the Francis bishopric of Rome, starting from the “ATM shutdown” that most likely tipped the scale of the Benedict abdication, to the question as to the FFI “property holdings” that most likely played a large part in the suppression of the FFI and the legal harassment of its founder and his family, right down to the takeover of the “Sovereign” Order of Malta, just to name three.

Now, on the back of this above information, we also need to recall the “strange reaction” of one Cardinal Reinhard “Bling” Marx, the Archbishop of Swank, to the information that Cardinal Pell provided in early 2015, information to the effect that 100’s of millions of Euros” were found in non-disclosed and unknown to the auditors bank accounts,  and now we can start seeing a pattern.

In the above cited post, we can read the words of Card. “Bling” Marx, who made the following statement:

However the German cardinal said that the presentation of specific figures (Card. Pell disclosure) was “not very helpful.” He said that the assets of the Vatican can only be measured meaningfully when they are balanced against financial obligations.

If we are to correctly “discern” the following information, it would appear as if the Vatican (IOR in this case) is in fact cash rich. Yet that cash appears to be sitting in Vatican Bank “accounts” that might not be the property of the Vatican. In other words, the cash is sitting in The Vatican Bank’s client accounts.

On the “obligations” side, the Vatican is generating operating losses. This is most likely what is meant by the phrase “balanced against financial obligations”.

Now the problem with this above situation, (if this is the situation, which it most likely is) is that in an environment of negative interest rates (NIRP) such as is the case in Euroland at present, the Vatican Bank, like all banks has a problem. That problem is that the Vatican Bank does not earn any interest income on its cash holdings. The reason being that the interest rates are negative, meaning that it is the Vatican Bank that pays the corresponding bank (as opposed to receiving interest income in a normal positive rate environment), for that corresponding bank to hold the money of the Vatican bank. And like with any bank, it is this interest income that is the main source of income for a “savings bank”, like the IOR.

So that leaves us with ONE BIG QUESTION and that is this: How does a savings bank, in a Negative Interest Rate environment make €50.0 million per annum?

I will leave this question open for the time being…

Back to the story. Given the above, what we might be seeing is that since the Vatican is losing this source of income (interest income from the Vatican Bank), it is looking at other sources of income to make up for the operating losses. And just a quick reminder, those operating losses are incurred by the Holy See as a result of the diminishing “contributions made pursuant to Canon 1271 of the Code of Canon Law”, i.e. the collection plate income from the Universal Church. 

Enter Card. “Bling” Marx’s observation. The issue that the Archbishop of Swank was most likely signaling in the above cited text, is that it is the German Bishops’ Conference that is subsidizing The Vatican’s operating loss. So presenting the Vatican as “cash rich” is very counterproductive as per the Germans, since it doesn’t create the “environment of urgency” that is needed in the Universal Church, an urgency that will get those ‘lazy,’ ‘egotistical,’ ‘constantly condemning’ members in other countries to crack open their wallets and help the brother FrancisChurch out.

Now, the above described situation was the case for the 2014 fiscal year. In that year, The Vatican incurred a €25.6m loss from the Holy See against a €63.5m gain from the City State. This financial performance did not include any “extraordinary” income entries.

Fast forward to Fiscal Year 2015, we get less income from the City State, meaning less pilgrims, i.e. the REAL FRANCIS EFFECT. On the Holy See side, we see no information about cost reductions, yet we see that the operating loss halved. And assuming that the income from “contributions made pursuant to Canon 1271 of the Code of Canon Law” did not rebound (i.e. we can use the decrease in City State income as a proxy for the rate of change of membership numbers in the Universal Church), we are left with the only one answer, and that is that it was these extraordinary income entries that caused the “halving of the operating loss” of the Holy See.

Yet those one off extraordinary payments amount to “€50.0 from Vatican Bank + income from ‘unspecified “investments’.” which would indicate that 2015 might have just been that year when the bottom fell out from the collection plate take in the Universal Church.

Which in turn just might be the reason behind not only the rumors of removing Francis, but it could be the reason behind Francis’ increasing “bad mood” and his lashings out at those conservative, read “moneyed” Catholics.

And we thought is was about doctrine and the Dubia…

NB: If we look at the SSPX/FrancisChurch recognition process in light of Francis gaining a “buyer of last resort” for dormant post-conciliar FrancisChurch – In Liquidation’s tangible assets, it all begins to make sense. But I digress…

So we wait and watch for those 2015 Consolidated Financials to be released…

and read the below article from Life Site News, bringing us Catholics Francis’ latest “homiletics”. (see here)

PS If you dear reader would like a personal blessing message from Francis, please click here.

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Pope Francis rebukes ‘lazy,’ ‘egotistical,’ ‘constantly condemning’ Christians

ROME, Italy, January 20, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis continued his veiled criticism of Catholics opposed to “new horizons” in his homily Tuesday morning, labeling them “parked Christians.” He continued with this theme as he has throughout his pontificate, speaking in this morning’s homily of the “egotistical mentality” of the “doctors of the law” who “constantly condemn” others.

Francis said Christians should be open to change, saying they cannot “park” and be “lazy” when faced with adversity or remain in their “refrigerator.” For some, he added, life is “living in the fridge, just like that, so that everything remains the same.”

Francis specifically mentioned “lazy Christians, Christians, who do not have the will to continue, Christians, who do not struggle for a change of things, for new things to come, those that if changed would be a good for everybody.” Specifying about whom he was speaking, Francis added, “when I say Christians I mean all: lay, priests, bishops, all of them.”

In his homily at Casa Santa Marta this morning, the Pope said, “Consider the doctors of the law who persecuted Jesus. These men did everything prescribed by the law. But their mindset was distanced from God. Theirs was an egotistical mindset, focused on themselves: their hearts constantly condemned [others].”

The frequency with which Pope Francis has verbally reproached those not alligned with his progressive agenda within the Church has seen a marked increase in recent months. Only ten days ago he lashed out at “doctors of the law” who he said were incoherent, hypocritical, clericalist, and lacking in real authority.