The Vatican’s consolidated financial statement for 2007 has been published, and things don’t look so good. The annual Peter’s Pence collection — the traditional means by which Catholics around the world directly support the Pope and his evangelizing ministries — fell by a staggering 32% (i.e. from €70.4 million in 2006 to €50.8 million in 2007).

Even despite an anonymous gift of €9.09 million (over $14 million) from one very generous individual, the Holy See still had a deficit of €9 million for the year. The weak U.S. dollar was cited as one of the major reasons for this deficit (“This decrease [in the surplus] … ‘is due above all to a sudden very strong reversal of trend in fluctuations of the rate of exchange, especially of the US dollar.'”)