CAFR SCHOOL: The Vatican Is Broke?

In a small blurb on a back page of the Salt Lake Tribune was this little gem of a story, referencing a recent Associated Press article. I laughed out loud when I read it, and I think you will too…

Link–> http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/54456425-68/vatican-million-euro-deficit.html.csp

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Vatican posts $19 million deficit, worst in years

By NICOLE WINFIELD
The Associated Press

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First Published Jul 09 2012 01:28 pm • Last Updated Jul 10 2012 12:17 am

“Vatican City • The Vatican has registered one of its worst budget deficits in years, plunging back into the red with a (euro) 15 million ($19 million) deficit in 2011 after a brief respite of profit.

The Vatican on Thursday blamed the poor outcome on high personnel and communications costs and adverse market conditions, particularly for its real estate holdings.

Not even a (euro) 50 million gift to the pope from the Vatican bank and increased donations from dioceses and religious orders could offset the expenses and poor investment returns, the Vatican said in its annual financial report…”

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Note here that we can all learn from this official statement from the Vatican in a big way. For this is exactly the same scam that all governments are claiming around the country, some even now in bankruptcy proceedings. So let’s list these similarities:

1) The Vatican is a corporation, as is each individual and Federal government entity.

2) The Vatican and government operate both in the non-profit and for-profit realm.

3) Both have an Annual Financial Report, and both have a budget report.

4) Both the Vatican and the Government have real estate holdings, as well as stock investments, foreign currency holdings, and both invest heavily into the world-wide corporate structure and fund its liquidity.

5) Both promote their debt, while hiding their investment asset balances.

6) Both have a central bank, which bails it out in moments of need, and then expects Catholics/taxpayers to pay the bill despite its liquid investment holdings.

7) Both openly lie by omission to the people of Earth, while in a position of trust, referring to a deficit while completely ignoring its investment holdings – as if these fund balances don’t even exist.

8) Both use the “depreciation” of capital assets (land holdings, buildings, etc.) to show on their financial reports a liability against other assets, in order to decrease reportable value of these investment assets.

9) Both create budgets that are falsely imploded with such things as future liabilities so as to justify its raising of taxes and its request for tithing.

10) Both create separate sub-corporations with their own financial statements as for-profit entities, but do not use those profits for the benefit of the people.

11) Both call the people “customers”, not people.

12) Both lay off employees with the excuse of budget shortfalls, still not dipping into their vast trillions in liquid investment capital.

13) AND BOTH OWN AND CONTROL THE MEDIA THROUGH STOCK INVESTMENT AND COERCION, AND USE IT TO HIDE ALL OF THIS FROM THE PEOPLE BY KEEPING THEM ENTERTAINED WITH EVERYTHING BUT THIS INFORMATION.

In this truly ironic statement by the Vatican we can see perhaps the best example ever of how a government corporation lies by the act of utter and ridiculous disassociation and nondisclosure of its true wealth. And yes, the Vatican is a corporation, and it is the government of Vatican City – as a “nation state”. It just happens to call itself a church.

Associated Press story continued…

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“The Vatican said it ran a (euro) 14.9 million deficit in 2011 after posting a surplus of (euro) 9.85 million in 2010. The 2010 surplus, however, was something of an anomaly. In 2009 the Vatican ran a deficit of (euro) 4.01 million, in 2008 the deficit was (euro) 0.9 million and in 2007 it was nearly (euro) 9.1 million.

The Vatican city state, which mainly manages the Vatican Museums and is a separate and autonomous administration, managed a budget surplus of (euro) 21.8 million. That’s largely due to a spike in revenue from the museums: More than five million people visited the Sistine Chapel and other works of art in the Vatican museums last year, bringing in (euro) 91.3 million in 2011 compared to (euro) 82.4 million a year earlier.

And the Vatican could also cheer that donations from the faithful were also up last year despite the global economic crisis: Donations from Peter’s Pence, which are donations from the faithful to support the pope’s charity works, rose from $67.7 million in 2010 to $69.7 million last year. That money, however, doesn’t figure into the Vatican’s operating budget, though contributions from dioceses, religious orders and the Vatican bank do.

The Vatican bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, is able to make such a big contribution to the Vatican’s budget each year based on investments.

Draining the Vatican’s finances were the high costs for its main job of spreading the faith via Vatican media: Vatican Radio, the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano and Vatican television all have significant expenses and little or nothing in the way of revenue. Vatican Radio, however, is expected to save hundreds of thousands of euros a year in energy costs each year after it cut back short and medium-wave transmissions to Europe and the United States from its main transmission point in Rome.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, who runs the Vatican radio and television departments and is also the Vatican spokesman, stressed that layoffs among the 2,832 Holy See personnel aren’t in the offing, although he acknowledged that savings must come from elsewhere.

During the meeting of cardinals who oversee the Vatican’s finances this week, he said, there was a “request for prudence and savings.”

“I’m not an expert,” he said of the deficit. “Yes, it’s bigger than in past years, it’s true.” But he noted that the amounts on a global scale aren’t alarming. “Certainly they indicate a need to pay attention and see the criteria the Vatican’s assets are administered.”

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I’ve written extensively on the trillions in government investments that are covered up in the same way and completely ignored on the budget report while being reported on the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR).

The Vatican is no different. In fact, it is the extreme example of the government (nation state) hoarding of wealth that would benefit the people of the world.

Think about it for a moment…

Just one of the thousands upon thousands of artifacts, paintings, sculptures, precious metal coins and treasures, and every other trinket and parchment of knowledge that the Vatican holds within its bowels – just the value of one of those literally priceless artifacts could feed the entire world, let alone cover a 16 million euro deficit in the selectively presented budget report of the Vatican politicians.

And so, I’ve come up with a few propaganda slogans that I think might help the Pope, the Black Pope, and his financial officers continue to fool the useful idiots that keep donating to this massive for profit country called the Vatican…

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“We can’t sell our assets. They are priceless.
There is not enough money in the world to buy just one.
Therefore, we are declaring bankruptcy.”

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“The Saints organized a union,
and they are demanding health benefits.
Please give.”

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“Where in God’s name did I put my savings account?”

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“I’m sorry, but God just called.
He says we’re broke.

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I could go on… and on and on and on… but you get the point. The organization of corporate religion is not a Christian one. And the Vatican is a corporate camel with no chance of fitting through even the largest gauge needle.

In the end, if you understand what has been written here, then you understand the entirety of the government investment scheme. And you understand that the people of America are wealthy beyond imagination, but that wealth is being hidden in plain sight while government creates welfare programs to sustain the poverty level while collecting even more taxes from the poor – never fixing the very problem of poverty because that is the only thing that will create wealthy men and corporations.

Welcome to America… a potential heaven on earth, kept in purgatory by government obfuscation and hoarding of its actual wealth.

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–Clint Richardson (realitybloger.wordpress.com)
–Friday, July 13, 2012

Posted by realitybloger on July 13, 2012

https://realitybloger.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/cafr-school-the-vatican-is-broke/