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By Flavia Krause-Jackson
Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Pope Benedict XVI, reflecting on crashing
stock markets and capitalism, concluded that ``money vanishes, it is nothing''
and ``the only solid reality is the word of God.''
``He who builds only on visible and tangible things like
success, career and money, builds the house of his life on sand,'' the pontiff told bishops at an
assembly in the Vatican.
The Vatican has been paying attention to the global
financial meltdown and ran articles in its official newspaper, l'Osservatore Romano,
that criticize the free-market model for having ``grown too much and badly in
the past two decades.''
The crisis has begun to take its toll on global growth as
companies and consumers find it increasingly difficult and costly to borrow
money. The worldwide stock market slide yesterday wiped more than $2 trillion
off investors' wealth. Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index tumbled the most since
1987 yesterday as bank bailouts spread.
The Vatican, the world's smallest country, doesn't just have
a spiritual interest in the current turmoil. The papacy relies on earnings from
roughly $1 billion in stocks, bonds and real estate to top up donations from
Catholics around the world.
While the Holy See benefited in the 1990s from booming stock
markets and a strong dollar, it plunged into the red in 2003 and again in 2007
because of the U.S. currency's tumble, according to the latest financial reports
published annually.
As the outlook worsens, the pope may have to dip in once
again into Peter's Pence, the one source of cash that comes directly from the
contributions of the faithful.
Though the charitable giving to the pope should be directed
to humanitarian causes, it has been used in times of financial need to support
the church officials. Peter's Pence collected $79.8 million in 2007. The top
contributor was the U.S., followed by Italy.
To contact the reporter on this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson in Rome at fjackson@bloomberg.net
