Mo’ Money, Mo’ Pilgrims

Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani, head of economic affairs at the Holy See, said that the “remarkable increase” in both donations and numbers of pilgrims showed that there was “a symbiosis, a mutual sympathy between this Pope and Christian people everywhere”.

Presenting the Holy See’s annual budget yesterday, Cardinal Sebastiani noted that not only had it closed last year with a surplus of €2.4 million, partly thanks to diocesan donations, there had also been a “huge jump” in “Peter’s Pence”, the annual church collections given directly tothe Pope to use for charity, from $60 million (£30 million) in 2005 to $102 million. “The days when people talked of papal bankruptcy are past,” said Marco Tosatti, Vatican correspondent of La Stampa.

John Paul, who is on the road to sainthood, continues to be an attraction: with up to 35,000 pilgrims filing past his tomb in the crypt of St Peter’s every day, the Vatican is considering moving the tomb into the Basilica.

Record numbers attend Benedict’s weekly audiences, and seven million people a year now visit St Peter’s, a rise of 20 per cent. Similar increases are recorded for pilgrimages to Catholic shrines at Assisi, Lourdes, Fatima in Portugal and Madonna di Guadalupe in Mexico. “This is a Ratzinger phenomenon,” reported La Repubblica. Read All…

H/T: A Conservative Blog For Peace

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This entry was posted on December 31, 2007 at 1:07 am and is filed under Growth, News, Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Pilgrims”

  1. Jason Says:
    December 31, 2007 at 3:20 pm

    If we have a year-end Top 10 post titles, this one gets my vote, fo’ shizzle.

  2. A Simple Sinner Says:
    December 31, 2007 at 7:51 pm

    spanks homebizzle.

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