Latest news with #Pope Leo XIV
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Vatican reports good profit on investments and real estate as the pope tackles a financial crisis
VATICAN CITY — The office that manages Vatican investments and real estate on Tuesday reported a profit of 62 million euros (around $63 million) in 2024, up 16 million euros from 2023. It's one of the best results in years and a bit of good news as Pope Leo XIV begins to tackle the Holy See's longstanding financial crisis. In its 2024 report, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, or APSA, said it had directed 46 million euros of the profit to fund the Holy See's operating costs. Some 10.5 million euros in profit came from good returns on investments, while its real estate profits equaled its 2023 results, the report said. The Vatican has been running a 50 million to 60 million euro structural deficit for years and is facing a 1 billion euro pension fund shortfall , a critical scenario that represents one of the greatest challenges facing Leo at the start of his pontificate. The Chicago-born math major, though, is said to have a head for numbers and his agenda in his first weeks in office has been filled with meetings of the Vatican's various financial entities. The Vatican has 4,234 real estate properties in Italy and 1,200 more in London, Paris, Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland. Only about one-fifth are rented at fair market value. Some 70% generate no income because they house Vatican or other church offices; the remaining 11% are rented at reduced rents to Vatican employees. In 2024, these properties only generated 35 million euros in profit, essentially equaling the profit of 2023. Financial analysts have long identified such undervalued real estate as a source of potential revenue, but APSA has little money to invest in renovations necessary to justify higher, market rents. The report blamed the flat results on higher costs maintaining the properties, with 3.8 million euros spent in 2024 on maintenance alone. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Associated Press
2 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Vatican reports good profit on investments and real estate as the pope tackles a financial crisis
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The office that manages Vatican investments and real estate on Tuesday reported a profit of 62 million euros (around $63 million) in 2024, up 16 million euros from 2023. It's one of the best results in years and a bit of good news as Pope Leo XIV begins to tackle the Holy See's longstanding financial crisis. In its 2024 report, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, or APSA, said it had directed 46 million euros of the profit to fund the Holy See's operating costs. Some 10.5 million euros in profit came from good returns on investments, while its real estate profits equaled its 2023 results, the report said. The Vatican has been running a 50 million to 60 million euro structural deficit for years and is facing a 1 billion euro pension fund shortfall, a critical scenario that represents one of the greatest challenges facing Leo at the start of his pontificate. The Chicago-born math major, though, is said to have a head for numbers and his agenda in his first weeks in office has been filled with meetings of the Vatican's various financial entities. The Vatican has 4,234 real estate properties in Italy and 1,200 more in London, Paris, Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland. Only about one-fifth are rented at fair market value. Some 70% generate no income because they house Vatican or other church offices; the remaining 11% are rented at reduced rents to Vatican employees. In 2024, these properties only generated 35 million euros in profit, essentially equaling the profit of 2023. Financial analysts have long identified such undervalued real estate as a source of potential revenue, but APSA has little money to invest in renovations necessary to justify higher, market rents. The report blamed the flat results on higher costs maintaining the properties, with 3.8 million euros spent in 2024 on maintenance alone. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
The National
21-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
Aid pressure mounts on Israel as nations warn Gaza's suffering has 'reached new depths'
The suffering of Gaza 's people has 'reached new depths', more than two dozen countries warned on Monday as pressure mounted on Israel to stop its 'drip-feeding of aid' to the strip. Britain and France were among 25 countries to say Israel's aid policy is 'dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity', in some of their strongest language yet. Israel dismissed their criticism as 'disconnected from reality'. Sources told The National that the US and several Arab allies were in talks on organising direct airdrops into Gaza to ease a worsening hunger crisis in the strip, whose land borders are tightly controlled by Israel. The sources said the talks began on Sunday in Cairo and Doha between representatives of Israel on one side and those of the US, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan on the other. Several countries carried out airdrops in 2023 and last year. A UAE aid ship carrying more than 7,000 tonnes of supplies meanwhile left Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi on Monday to deliver supplies for Gaza. The largest aid vessel to be sent by the Emirates so far, it is carrying food, shelter materials and medical and health supplies, state news agency Wam reported. Expected to arrive in the next two weeks, the ship is also carrying a fully equipped field hospital that can accommodate 400 patients and 16 ambulances, Hamoud Al Efari, the UAE Aid mission's co-ordinator, told The National. Adding to the pressure for more aid, Pope Leo XIV spoke of the 'urgent need to provide assistance' in his first call since taking office with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Vatican said. Their conversation came days after three people were killed when an Israeli strike hit Gaza's only Catholic church. Israel has allowed only sporadic aid deliveries into Gaza since ending a two-month ceasefire in March. In one incident on Sunday, Gaza officials said 93 people were killed after hungry civilians surrounded a World Food Programme convoy carrying flour. Israel was accused on Monday of firing at civilians with their hands raised near the aid convoy, in the bloodiest incident yet involving aid delivery. 'Gunfire erupted from all directions,' recalled one witness, Musab Abu Omer. Five more people were reported killed while waiting for aid in Gaza on Monday, as Israel expanded its offensive into the city of Deir Al Balah – which had been spared major ground assaults in the previous 21 months of war. Aid workers have warned of a risk of famine in the enclave. The secretary general of the Gulf Co-operation Council, Jassim Al Budaiwi, called on the international community to 'to take immediate and serious action to end this brutal siege'. He said the Gulf states condemned the 'continued unjust, inhumane and illegal blockade' by Israeli forces. The joint statement by 25 mainly European countries, who also include Australia, Canada and Japan, called it 'horrifying' that more than 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid. 'The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government's aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,' they said. 'We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food.' Israel retorted that Hamas was to blame for starting the war and failing to release Israeli hostages, as talks approach a dead end on a ceasefire proposal by the US, Qatar and Egypt. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the 25-country statement was 'disconnected from reality'. 'Hamas is the sole party responsible for the continuation of the war and the suffering on both sides,' it said. 'At these sensitive moments in the ongoing negotiations, it is better to avoid statements of this kind.' The Israeli army has reportedly proposed seizing yet more of Gaza, where it already claims control of about 75 per cent of the strip's territory, to put pressure on Hamas in the ceasefire talks between both sides falter. Israeli outlet Channel 12 said its sources described the plan as one for 'taking over Gaza'.
The Guardian
20-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Pope condemns Gaza war's ‘barbarity' as 73 reported killed while waiting for food
Pope Leo XIV has condemned the 'barbarity' of the war in Gaza and the 'indiscriminate use of force' as Gaza's health ministry said at least 73 Palestinians had been killed queueing for food. The ministry said on Sunday that the victims had been killed in different locations, mostly in northern Gaza. It said 67 of the dead had been killed by Israeli fire while waiting for UN aid trucks entering through the northern Zikim crossing with Israel. The UN World Food Programme said that shortly after entering Gaza, a WFP convoy of 25 trucks carrying food aid encountered 'massive crowds of hungry civilians' who then came under gunfire. 'WFP reiterates that any violence involving civilians seeking humanitarian aid is completely unacceptable,' it said in a statement. The director of al-Shifa hospital, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, told Associated Press that since Sunday morning the hospital had received 48 people who were killed and 150 wounded while seeking aid from lorries expected to enter Gaza at the Zikim crossing. He could not say whether the dead had been killed by the Israeli army, armed gangs or both. Israel's military said soldiers had shot at a gathering of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza who it claimed posed a threat, and it was aware of some casualties. But it said the numbers reported by officials in Gaza were far higher than its initial investigation found. It did not immediately comment on the incident in the south. There was new alarm as Israel's military issued evacuation orders for areas of central Gaza, one of the few areas where it has rarely operated with ground troops and where many international organisations attempting to distribute aid are located. In central Deir al-Balah, residents said Israeli planes struck three houses in the area and dozens of families began leaving their homes, carrying some of their belongings, Reuters reported. Before these reports emerged, the pope called for 'an immediate end to the barbarity of the war and for a peaceful resolution to the conflict' at the end of the Angelus prayer at Castel Gandolfo, his summer residence near Rome. The pope also spoke of his anguish over the Israeli strike on Gaza's only Catholic church last week, which killed three people and injured 10. Among the injured was the parish priest, who used to receive daily calls from the late Pope Francis. Israel has expressed 'deep sorrow' and opened an investigation into the strike on the church, which was sheltering about 600 displaced people, most of them children and many with special needs. 'This act, unfortunately, adds to the ongoing military attacks against the civilian population and places of worship in Gaza,' the pope said on Sunday. 'I appeal to the international community to observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect civilians, as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force, and the forced displacement of populations.' On Sunday the UN's agency for Palestinians, Unrwa, said Israeli authorities were 'starving civilians in Gaza', including 1 million children. 'Unrwa has enough food for the entire population of Gaza for over three months stockpiled in warehouses,' it said in an earlier social media post that included photos of a warehouse in Arish, Egypt. 'Open the gates, lift the siege, allow Unrwa to do its work and help people in need among them 1 million children,' the agency said. Unrwa said last week that babies were dying from 'severe acute malnutrition'. Israel banned all cooperation with Unrwa in Gaza and the West Bank, accusing the agency of having been infiltrated by Hamas, although an independent review found Tel Aviv had failed to provide evidence of its claims that Unrwa employees were members of terrorist organisations. The agency had been the main distributor of aid in Gaza and provider of basic services, including health and education, to Palestinians across the region. Since May aid has been largely distributed by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in place of the traditional UN-led system. Food has become scarce, and very expensive, since Israel imposed a blockade on 2 March. The UN has said that as of 13 July, 875 people had been killed in recent weeks trying to get food, including 674 in the vicinity of GHF sites. The remaining 201 victims were killed on the routes or close to aid convoys run by the UN or its partners. Children have been killed fetching water for their families. Meanwhile, the Israeli military issued evacuation orders on Sunday in areas of central Gaza packed with displaced Palestinians, a sign of an imminent attack on neighbourhoods in Deir al-Balah, which has alarmed the families of Israeli hostages, who fear their relatives are being held there. 'Can anyone [promise] to us that this decision will not come at the cost of losing our loved ones?' the families said in a statement. The Israeli military dropped leaflets from the sky ordering people in several districts in south-west Deir al-Balah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza have been sheltering, to leave their homes and head south. 'The [Israel] Defense Forces continues to operate with great force to destroy the enemy's capabilities and terrorist infrastructure in the area,' the military said. Israel's forces have not yet entered these districts during the current conflict because they suspect that Hamas may be holding hostages there. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in captivity in Gaza are believed still to be alive. The war was triggered by Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage. At least 58,895 Palestinians have been killed and 140,980 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said on Sunday.
Washington Post
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Pope Leo XIV renews his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy — Pope Leo XIV renewed his call on Sunday for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza , asking the international community to respect international laws and the obligation to protect civilians. 'I once again call for an immediate end to the barbarity of this war and for a peaceful resolution to the conflict,' the pontiff said at the end of his Sunday Angelus prayer from his summer retreat in Castel Gandolfo.
