ROME – A new analysis of the Vatican’s financial situation by an Italian news outlet contains both good and bad news for papal finances, pointing to relative success in efforts to contain ballooning deficits but also seemingly irreversible long-term declines.

According to an overview of the most recent financial data published July 26 by La Repubblica, Italy’s most widely read daily newspaper, the Vatican’s annual operating deficit grew by roughly $5.4 million in 2023, a lower figure than in past years. The report suggested the result was due to the impact of both spending cuts and also efforts to generate more realistic appraisals of the value of Vatican properties.

Among the cost-cutting measures adopted in recent years include new limits on hiring and contracting, as well as efforts to increase the rents collected on some Vatican properties which are leased commercially and to put others up for sale.

The report cited a recently completed financial statement approved by the Vatican’s Council for the Economy, led by German Cardinal Reinhard Marx. According to the report, the deficit for 20234 amounted to over $90 million, with income of $1.25 billion and expenses of $1.34 billion.

Income in 2023 actually grew by $30 million, according to the financial statement, but expenses also went up by $36 million due to the impact of inflation.

The statement also indicated that the size of the 2023 deficit could still shrink somewhat depending on what the actual performance of the Vatican’s investment portfolios match projections.

The Repubblica analysis also found that income from the annual Peter’s Pence collection, which supports the works of the pope, amounted to $52.5 million in 2023, an increase over the $47.2 million collected in 2022.

Nonetheless, the net gain from the collection was offset by the fact that the fund’s reserves were once again draw upon in 2023 to support the Roman Curia, the Vatican’s chief administrative bureaucracy, to the tune of almost $98 million.

Moreover, the long-term trend in income from the fund is clearly downwards. According to the Repubblica analysis, collections dropped 23 percent overall from 2015 to 2019, and are poised for further reductions.

To some extent, those declines may be related to financial scandals, such as the aborted $400 million purchase of a former Harrods warehouse in London that resulted in the criminal convictions of nine figures for fraud, including Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu. Given that Peter’s Pence also is sometimes viewed as a referendum on the popularity of the current pope, various controversies surrounding Franci may also have had an impact.

More basically, however, most observers believe the core factor is that much of the Peter’s Pence income derives from wealthier nations, where Catholic populations, and therefore Catholic giving, have been in decline for decades.

Declines in income are especially worrying for Vatican accountants today, given concerns about an aging workforce and unfunded pension obligations down the line. There’s also alarm that rising costs and declining income could eventually compel the Vatican to either trim its payroll or cut salaries, or both, at time when both the volume and the complexity of the workload from around the world is increasing rapidly.

The financial statement reportedly approved by the Council for the Economy concerns the Holy See, and mostly excludes both the Government of the Vatican City State, which is responsible for administration of the physical territory – including income, for example, from the Vatican Museums – and also excludes the Institute for the Works of Religion, the so-called “Vatican bank,” which for 2023 showed $33.2 million in income and a total of $5.9 billion in client assets.

However, it’s considered improbable that income from either the city state or the IOR will be sufficient in coming years to offset the Vatican’s broad deficits, leaving it unclear for the moment how the losses will be sustained.

Dissatisfied with a Tennessee attorney general’s investigation, the Registry of Election Finance is set to subpoena members of two Constitutional Republican groups to have them explain how they operate without registering as a political action committee.

The registry board voted Tuesday to order members of the Tennessee and Sumner County Constitutional Republicans to answer questions about their political activity at an upcoming “show cause” hearing. A sworn complaint filed by Goodlettsville businessman Wes Duenkel in November accuses the groups of acting like a PAC by making expenditures for candidates or issues but refusing to register with the state.

Five people spoke to the state investigator, but three others declined.

Registry board Chair Hank Fincher said Tuesday, “If they’re not going to talk to us, they’re going to have to assert the Fifth Amendment,” the right to avoid self-incrimination.

Registry board members requested the attorney general’s office investigate the matter in February and in late June received the results. The report amounted to short interviews in which four members denied raising or spending money for candidates. The investigation did show the group’s Facebook page at one point offered a link to donate money. The group also vetted and supported candidates for local and state elections, in addition to holding breakfasts and other political gatherings.

(READ MORE: Tennessee Senate incumbents face opponents calling them not conservative enough)

Co-founder Chris Spencer, who is challenging Republican Sen. Ferrell Haile, of Gallatin, in the Aug. 1 primary, caught the ire of some board members because he told the AG’s office investigator, after being asked about monthly meetings and refreshments, “I am done with questions. This is such a waste of time.”

Spencer declined to comment after Tuesday’s meeting.

Kurt Riley, another co-founder, claimed in his interview that breakfasts were free and that the sale of Tennessee Constitutional Republicans merchandise did not benefit candidates or the group’s platform. He also said the group was formed to pay for his travel and expertise.

The attorney general office’s investigation was accompanied by a letter from the deputy attorney general saying the office is not an “investigative agency” and doesn’t have the resources to conduct full-scale probes for the registry. The letter also said the registry, based on a new state law, could use other options for investigations if it is unsatisfied with the AG’s Office.

(READ MORE: Sumner County, Tennessee, poised to scrap human resources department)

Fincher, a Democrat, said Tuesday he was “surprised” at Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s “abdication” of statutory duties to investigate campaign finance issues. He noted the registry board opted to investigate matters itself and added that the board will be seeking more funding from the legislature to hire investigators.

Registry member Tom Lawless, who previously questioned the length of time it took the AG’s office to produce the report, challenged the quality of the investigation and called the AG’s action “repugnant” and “reprehensible.”

If subpoenaed members of the Constitutional Republicans decline to testify before the board, it could take “corrective actions,” Lawless said.

“Nobody is above the law, and they’re required to do certain things. And if they don’t do it, we’ll assist them with the maximum ability that we can,” Lawless added.

The attorney general’s office has declined to respond to questions about the letter it sent to the registry with its investigation.

Read more at TennesseeLookout.com.