Vatican reports 2.2 mn euro profit amid drop in donations

Vatican City, July 5: The Vatican posted a budget surplus of 2.2 million euros for the 2012 fiscal year, although its charitable offerings fell, the Holy See said.

A panel of cardinals who approved the balance sheet said the 2,185,622-euro profit was largely due to good financial management.

But the Vatican noted a 12-percent drop in donations from ordinary faithful and more than a five-percent drop in contributions from religious orders.

It said its main items of expenditure were its 2,823 employees, its radio station and the five million euros it paid for the first time to the Italian state in property taxes.

Over the past week, the Vatican's financial institutions have been convulsed by a 20 million euro smuggling plot that led to the arrest of a senior cleric and the resignations of the Vatican bank's two top managers, apparently over a lack of financial transparency.

Pope Francis has set up a commission to probe the Vatican Bank, which has long been beset by money-laundering allegations. He also personally attended the approval of the Vatican's annual financial statement.

Pope to 'weep for the dead' in Lampedusa: Pope Francis will visit migrants on Italy's southernmost island of Lampedusa and "weep for the dead", papal secretary Alfred Xuereb said.

"His visit signals that while there are wealthy, wasteful people in the North, there are people who come to us in search of a better life but instead are often greeted with death," Xuereb said.

In his first trip as pontiff outside the Rome area, Pope Francis will visit Lampedusa Monday and celebrate mass with migrants at an immigration centre notorious for its overcrowded conditions.

He will also cast a wreath into the sea to honour the many migrants who have perished during the perilous voyage aboard rickety boats.

During his first private meeting with Pope Francis Thursday, Italy's Premier Enrico Letta praised the pope's "courageous gesture" in visiting Lampedusa, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.

Illegal migration picks up during the warmer summer months when sea conditions improve, but thousands of migrants have drowned or died of dehydration during the journey across the Mediterranean.

Lampedusa is the main arrival point for illegal migrants reaching southern Europe by sea and close to 500 migrants have landed on the tiny island since Monday, said Pietro Bartolo, the island's chief medical officer.