The Maltese Archdiocese posted a profit of Lm187,110 for the year ended 2004, reversing a loss in 2003 of Lm206,454, the Curia said yesterday.

The Curia’s financial controller, Robert Agius, told a press conference yesterday that this profit was mainly due to two factors – an unexpected increase in the dividend of APS Bank and a drastic decrease in the maintenance and capital costs of the archdiocese by almost Lm400,000.

Mr Agius said a substantial amount of the church’s expenses were on wages and salaries for 1,000 employees to the tune of Lm4,747,000.

Lm1,151,000 is paid to the 300 or so members of the clergy.

Administration costs and costs related to pastoral work amounted to Lm3,400,000 with the diocese paying Lm312,000 in taxes, Mr Agius said.

Most of the church’s revenue comes from collections in parishes, homes and other entities. The total amount collected for 2004 was Lm3,768,000 or 43 per cent of total income.

Expenses that required a subsidy from the diocese included children’s and elderly persons homes (Lm183,000), broadcasting and communication (Lm130,000), and the Foundation for Theological Studies (Lm67,000).

Mr Agius said the deficit at Dar tal-Providenza was particularly worrying for the church. In 2004 the home had a deficit of Lm305,000, an increase of Lm97,000 over 2003. He added that donations from marathons at RTK and Kerygma contributed substantially to the day-to-day expenses.

Maintenance and other related costs amounted to Lm743,000 out of a total of Lm2,142,000 in operational costs. This was balanced by collections in churches that amounted to Lm1,645,000, investments (Lm387,000) and other fund raising activities which brought in Lm164,000.

The Curia’s administrative secretary Fr Anthony Portelli said that voluntary work remained an important aspect of the church’s operations, adding there were over 100 entities who had submitted their accounts to the Curia for inclusion into the annual financial report.

Responding to questions by The Malta Independent, Mr Agius said the Church was currently in a dispute with the Inland Revenue Department over an ex officio tax assessment dating back to 1991 for Lm1.8 million.

With regards to the transfer of property agreement with the government, Mr Agius said this was in its final stages and the church expected to start receiving regular payments as from next year.