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	Vatican Yard Sale Not a Solution Cape Breton Post April 26, 2010 http://www.capebretonpost.com/Opinion/Editorial/2010-04-25/article-1037129/Vatican-yard-sale-not-a-solution/1 Melt the Vatican gold and sell the artworks to pay the cost of civil lawsuits against Catholic Church entities over the sexual abuse of children by priests. hat's a not uncommon prescription heard around Antigonish diocese in recent months, as vigorously expressed in an opinion piece by Arichat's Marie-Louise Samson (Weekend Feedback: Let Rome Pay, April 17). Appealing as it may sound, there are some problems with idea. For one thing, it would have to be a voluntary. There's an idea that the Vatican might somehow be held liable for complicity in protecting abusive priests and hiding their crimes, but if this were seriously pursued through the court systems of the world the only sure winners would be the armies of lawyers. Another problem, as noted by Rev. Daniel Doucet (Weekend Feedback: World's Less Fortunate Would Have First Dibs on Vatican Treasures, April 24), is that if the Vatican were to liquidate its treasures for ready money there'd be higher priority claimants than parishes in the developed world struggling with legal settlements – the world's poor, for example. Then there's the question of how much the church in Rome could actually raise. Pope John Paul II in 1981 ordered annual financial disclosure to try to debunk the notion that the Vatican is obscenely wealthy. By this measure the Holy See runs a budget of around a quarter-billion dollars – much less than Halifax Regional Municipality, for example – and often falls into deficit. This funds such things as the Vatican bureaucracy, diplomatic missions and media operations. The Pope administers a separate worldwide collection and dispersal fund, Peter's Pence, for numerous charitable and relief efforts. Then there's the separate Vatican City State operation which looks after museums and raises money through the sale of stamps and mementoes as well as admission fees. Maintenance and restoration of the historic buildings and artworks is a huge ongoing expense, however. A 2004 valuation stated the Holy See's real estate value at 700 million euros, or roughly a billion dollars. St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, considered literally priceless, were valued at a symbolic one euro. No doubt some stuff could be sold off, just as parishes in this diocese are having to liquidate some assets to cover the diocesan settlement agreement. But then there's the custodial question. When it comes to the architectural and artistic works of greatest value, are these just assets to be liquidated to satisfy some current need or has history saddled the Roman church with an obligation to protect and preserve a unique cultural legacy of western civilization that has accumulated over centuries? For all its many faults, the church has met this custodial duty which can only grow more onerous as works dating to Medieval and Renaissance times suffer the ravages of passing years. The yard sale to end all yard sales, even if it were practical as a fundraiser, would be a betrayal of an historic obligation, not a solution to current problems.
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