Late last month, the Vatican announced the coronavirus pandemic had forced Pope Francis to postpone an annual fund raising campaign among Catholics worldwide to help him carry out his ministry.
FILE PHOTO: Pope Francis delivers an extraordinary"Urbi et Orbi" blessing - normally given only at Christmas and Easter - from an empty St. Peter's Square, as a response to the global coronavirus disease pandemic, at the Vatican, March 27, 2020. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File Photo
An internal memo seen by Reuters said the decisions, effective for the rest of the year, were taken “to mitigate, at least in the short-term, the grave economic impact ... and to avoid any further immediate drastic measures.” The pandemic has also drastically slowed the flow of funds from the Vatican Museums, which received some 7 million visitors last year and are the city’s most reliable cash cow.
He estimated that Holy See income would fall between 25 and 45 percent because of the coronavirus, depending on how well cost-cutting measures worked.Another unknown is that there is no indication when the pope can resume activities which attract tens of thousands of people at a time, such as general audiences and Masses on religious feast days.
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