PAPAL FINANCE.
PAPAL finance has always been a mystery to outsiders, and the tendency among Protestants has been to consider it a mystery of iniquity. Very grave writers use very hard language about the wickedness of Popes who raised money by selling offices, though the sale was in fact only a rough and unscientific way of borrowing on life annuities, the offices bringing no advantage except an exemption from taxa- tion. More recently it has been declared that the Papacy would collapse for lack of money, that the Popes had a secret treasure, that property belonging to convents all over the world was in course of transmission to Rome, and that the Papal debt would be repudiated. The truth all the while seems to have been that the revenue of the Roman States, aided by the proceeds of the Lottery, was for many years nearly sufficient for the Vatican and the expenses of its very imper- fect civil administration. Absolutism is always cheap, as we saw in Naples under the Bourbons, a celibate priesthood is satisfied with very small salaries, and amid a very corrupt population fees are sure to be heavy. The total expenditure on all purposes seems to have been a little in excess of three millions, of which less than one was, as far as we can understand accounts made imperfect by the use of the word " Pensions," expended on the Papacy itself, the vast staff that is maintained in the interest of the Catholic Church rather than of the Roman people. The latter were not very severely taxed except indirectly through the discouragement of enterprise, though the Month talks economic nonsense when it compares their taxation with that of Englishmen, but suffered great injustice in being required to pay all the expenses of an establishment kept up in theory for the benefit of the whole world. It is true they received some benefit in return from the multitude of pilgrims and visitors drawn to Rome, but that expenditure was chiefly felt within the city itself, which, nevertheless, did not grow rich. From 1815 to 1860, however, the Papal revenue has been nearly sufficient. Any small deficit occurring was made up by a loan at 6 per cent., the interest on which was regularly paid, and by 1859, says the Month, a Catholic magazine which has recently reported the facts, the revenue and expenditure were fairly balanced.
The story of an accumulated treasure was, however, a fiction, as was indeed evident from the raising of the loans, and in 1860, after the enfranchisement of two-thirds of the Roman territory, the Vatican found itself in pecuniary straits. True, with the territory, part of the debt and of the civil expenditure had disappeared, but the huge central organism was not maintained for Rome, but for the world, and could not, on the theory of the institution, be materially reduced. The Pope, moreover, under an idea which, after every effort to be as fair to him as to any other Sovereign we still fail to comprehend, thought it necessary to maintain an army of his own, which costs £600,000 a year, and would not, if France withdrew her troops, keep off invasion for a week. No persuasions, however, could change the mind of the Vatican on this matter, and within the last month the Pope has declared that he must, like other Kings, have soldiers, and recruits are still arriving from all quarters of the world. Another £320,000 is wasted by unscien- tific methods of collection, £800,000 is absorbed in paying interest and pensions, £250,000 is allowed for the civil ser- vice, police, roads, and so on, and £388,000 for the maintenance of the Pope and the establishment of the Church. The latter
sum is decidedly small when it is remembered that out of it the Holy Father has to maintain the Congregations, which are essential to the Roman system, a diplomatic service which covers the world,—though this expense is, we believe, lightened by contributions from some of the Courts,—and a Court which good policy invests with a peculiar but real stateliness of .cere- monial ; but the total reaches nearly £2,500,000, and the revenue of the State is only £1,200,000, leaving a deficit of £1,300,000 still to be supplied. That, we imagine, would be nearly the sum the Papacy would cost if it were deprived of its remaining territories, or reduced to the city of Rome, as the necessity for a diplomatic service, and for the main- tenance of the Curia in all its branches, would not thereby be removed. Pending an arrangement with Italy, there is no money to meet this deficit, except a voluntary con- tribution; the power of raising loans has departed—lenders looking to Italy as the ultimate security, and of course prefer- ring nine per cent. to six—and but for Peter's Pence the Vatican, would be hopelessly embarrassed. This curious contribution will, however, in all probability save it. The Month gives the income from this source at about £400,000 a year ; but there could be little if any difficulty about tripling it, so little that we do not comprehend the alarm of the Catholic organs. There are 30,000,000 of Catholic households in the world,. every one of which is reached by some priest or other, and 30,000,000 shillings would more than cover the necessities of the Pope. If the Catholic Church, with its wonderful organ- iza- tion, the only one in the world that really reaches down to the- very bottom of society, cannot raise a shilling a year from each household for the support of its central machinery, its hold upon mankind must be ridiculously overrated. That this is not the case is evident from the fact that there are more Bishops of Free than of State Churches in the Council, and of these, one group at least, that which speaks English, has no complaint to make about want of means. The Month we are convinced understates its own case when it puts the expenses- of the See, apart from the Kingship, at less than £400,000 but still if the truth is three times that, the Papacy can be in no permanent pecuniary difficulty. It has only to recognize the fact that it will not get its territories back, a .fact -which on many grounds ought to be a source of satisfaction to it, and to organize a contribution which could under no circumstances- be oppressive. It is not more than the sum raised by a very limited class within this single island for missions to the heathen.
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