I’d agree - in the UK, charities have a thing called “restricted funds”, which are donations given for a specific purpose, and which cannot be used for a other purpose without the permission of the original donor. Generally, this is things like trust funds, but I recall once giving my parish church something like £5 or so to start a roof fund off with, and when other works seemed more urgent, the treasurer or one of the wardens asked my permssion to use it for that instead.
1 Like
€52 million if I’m reading the 2017 annual report correctly.
1 Like
That’s the point I was (poorly!) implying. As Hungryjoe said:
The city of Rome needs the money, donated (probably without thinking about that) by people throwing coins into a publicly-maintained tourist attraction - not church property. If this was denying a genuinely poor charity a key source of revenue, that’d be awkward (though I’d still support the city, I think), but if Caritas is part of the catholic church, it’s just a matter of allocating budget.
ETA: Disclaimer: if I’m understanding this issue properly, based solely on this BB post and linked article. 
3 Likes
It is $4,657 per day! That’s like 4,057 Euros. That’s a stack about 9.5m tall 
Around 30kg of coins, or around 11 tonnes per year.
2 Likes
I’ll bet that “The One True Church” could sell off one of their many artworks and easily match the money the fountain produces in decades.
1 Like
It isn’t clear to me. The fountain was built and paid for by the Church.
1 Like
Seems like a pattern. Sisters of Providence, which is the parent organization of Providence Health & Services and Mercy Hospitals, sits on a cash reserve larger than most Fortune 500 companies while, at the same time, having a pretty bad record of denying claims from patients and predatory billing.
1 Like
“Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”
– Matthew 22:21
Nope, that doesn’t clear things up.
3 Likes
A wealthy benefactor, who happened to be a pope, paid for the original construction, in the 18th Century. That doesn’t mean it has ever been church property, and it certainly isn’t now. Full responsibility for maintenance and cleaning lies with the city, and I recall a multi-million Euro restoration a few years ago was funded by private sponsorship, NOT the church.
That said… it looks as if the mayor has backed-off.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
