Vatican reports good profit on investments and real estate as the pope tackles a financial crisis

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The office that manages Vatican investments and real estate on Monday reported a profit of 62 million euros (around $63 million) in 2024, up 16 million euros from 2023. It’s one of the best results in years and a bit of good news as Pope Leo XIV begins to tackle the Holy See’s longstanding financial crisis.

In its 2024 report, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, or APSA, said it had directed 46 million euros of the profit to fund the Holy See’s operating costs. Some 10.5 million euros in profit came from good returns on investments, while its real estate profits equaled its 2023 results, the report said.

The Vatican has been running a 50 million to 60 million euro structural deficit for years and is facing a 1 billion euro pension fund shortfall, a critical scenario that represents one of the greatest challenges facing Leo at the start of his pontificate.

The Chicago-born math major, though, is said to have a head for numbers and his agenda in his first weeks in office has been filled with meetings of the Vatican’s various financial entities.

The Vatican has 4,234 real estate properties in Italy and 1,200 more in London, Paris, Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland. Only about one-fifth are rented at fair market value. Some 70% generate no income because they house Vatican or other church offices; the remaining 11% are rented at reduced rents to Vatican employees.

In 2024, these properties only generated 35 million euros in profit, essentially equaling the profit of 2023.

Financial analysts have long identified such undervalued real estate as a source of potential revenue, but APSA has little money to invest in renovations necessary to justify higher, market rents. The report blamed the flat results on higher costs maintaining the properties, with 3.8 million euros spent in 2024 on maintenance alone.

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Faithful kneel in prayer proper to the start of Pope Leo XIV's Angelus noon prayer in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, July 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Faithful wait for the start of Pope Leo XIV's Angelus noon prayer in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, July 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.

A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.

Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.

For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.

The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”

Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.

Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)