Billionaire company Catholic Church: Your fortune is coming

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The Catholic Church in Switzerland is a billion-dollar company. Each year, the largest regional church raises over a billion francs, mainly through taxes from believers and companies.

These are the three most important pillars of revenue:

• Church tax of 782 million francs from natural persons
• Church tax of 172 million francs from legal entities
• Contribution of 105 million francs from the public sector (including payment of priests’ salaries)

The figures are averages from 2016 to 2021, as reported by the Roman Catholic Central Conference at Blick’s request. All in all, 1059 million per year. Income is also generated from the Catholic Church’s large real estate holdings. “The real estate portfolio is worth at least three billion francs,” estimates Ansgar Gmür (69), theologian and former director of the Swiss Homeowners Association.

Insufficient satisfaction

Maintaining churches and community centers primarily costs money. But other properties owned by the church fetch millions more. Even if districts do not maximize profits, a minimum return of around one percent is likely possible. So this means another 30 million francs every year.

On the expenditure side, personnel costs as well as building maintenance are particularly important. But in addition to this billion-dollar turnover, the payments made so far to victims of abuse seem very modest, if not insufficient. So far only 2.5 million francs have been accumulated in the so-called compensation fund for abuse victims. A total of two million francs in compensation has been paid so far for sexual abuse cases that have expired; maximum 20,000 francs per victim, often less.

Other countries pay significantly more

The study on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, published Tuesday, found that uncovering some cases that have not passed the statute of limitations could be very costly for some congregations. Because in some cantons, what is called state responsibility also applies to the church. Therefore, districts are responsible for their employees.

A look at Germany shows what could still happen to the Catholic Church in Switzerland. About ten times more Catholics live here than in Switzerland. The Catholic Church in Germany has so far paid over 38 million francs to victims of sexual abuse. The Archdiocese of Cologne was recently ordered to pay over 280,000 francs in compensation to an abuse victim.

Source :Blick