(FORTUNE Magazine) – As Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, and other evangelical Protestants in the U.S. squabble over TV empires that pull in hundreds of millions of dollars each year, cries of poverty are coming from an astonishing source: the Vatican. While no one disputes that the Vatican's assets -- especially real estate and art -- are virtually priceless, they don't help pay day-to-day bills. The Holy See announced recently that it is $63 million in the hole for 1986 and desperately needs help from Catholics around the world. FORTUNE estimates the Vatican's 1987 budget will be $120 million, which must cover salaries of more than 3,000 employees. The Vatican's direct sources of revenue are surprisingly modest. A major one is Peter's Pence, an annual collection taken in parishes around the world in late June. Last year it raised $32 million. Considerable revenue also comes from the Vatican's own investment portfolio, which may be as large as $300 million; conservatively invested, its income would still leave the Vatican far from covering its expenditures. Pope John Paul II was so concerned with the Vatican's worsening budget problems that in 1979 he summoned all cardinals to Rome, the first time in 400 years they had all convened for anything other than election of a Pope. Following that meeting, a 15-member committee of cardinals started attacking the problem, seeking ways to pull in greater contributions and -- join the party -- urging the Pope to cut costs. In the next few months the Vatican will end centuries of secrecy and publish its first-ever public budget. Money seems one of the few problems not facing U.S. evangelists at the moment. Their tribulations notwithstanding, FORTUNE finds that basing a business on the Bible often works extraordinarily well. See Managing, page 36.