Sunday, October 07, 2012

Maltese Church registers €114,279 surplus in 2011

The Maltese church recorded a surplus of €114,279 in 2011, following three successive deficits, the Curia announced today at the Fra Diegu institute in Hamrun.

The Curia's financial controller Robert Agius explained that in the previous year the church had registered a €1.7 million deficit which was mainly the result of the expense involved in organising the visit to Malta of Pope Benedict XVI.

However Agius also explained that the Curia had undertaken revenue enhancing and cost-cutting exercises, such as making better use of its properties such as the Catholic Institute in Floriana and the Media Centre in Blata l-Bajda.

The Curia is also in the process of installing photovoltaic panels on 41 properties in its pursuit to reduce its utility bills.

Total revenue in 2011 was of €24.7 million, a slight increase from €24.5 million in 2010. 

The largest source of income was from collections and donations, which amounted to €7.7 million, a 9% drop from the previous year. 

However there was a €1 million increase in other incomes which include fund-raising for Dar il-Providenza and other church institutions. 

The church also pocketed €6 million from its investments.

Expenditure reached €24.9 million from €26.2 million in 2010., with the biggest outlay being in salaries to lay employees (€10.2 million) and clergy members (€2.4 million).

Operational costs amounted to €9.7 million, a drop of €1.2 million over 2010. 

Agius said the decrease was the result of cost-cutting exercises and a reduction in capital project costs. The church also paid €939,000 in taxes.

Agius also pointed out that the Curia receives up to €2.5 million in grants which go to teachers' salaries, Caritas and the Emigrants' Commission among others.

The Church also forked out €486,00 in donations of which €189,000 were for the anti-divorce movement Zwieg Bla Divorzju.

The Curia's Pastoral Secretary Charles Cordina said the church is no longer concentrating on the construction of churches but "the Church is now concentrating on catechism and formation by opening pastoral centres in various localities."

He underlined the Church's vocation to offer services to vulnerable persons including children, abused women, drug addicts, the elderly and persons with disabilities. 

Cordina explained that in some cases, the Church keeps offering services which are loss-making and it consciously decides to do so because it is its vocation.

Cordina praised the Church's volunteers, including nuns who carry out invaluable work for free. 

This he explained, relieves the Church of huge financial pressures.