admin
VATICAN CITY. — Pope Francis yesterday created a new finance ministry to oversee the Holy See’s economic affairs in a move the Vatican said was aimed at helping the poor and increasing transparency, following a wave of scandals. The ministry will be headed by Australian Cardinal George Pell, and will prepare an annual budget for the Vatican as well as imposing international financial standards, the Vatican said.
“The Holy Father today (yesterday) announced a new coordination structure for economic and administrative affairs of the Holy See and the Vatican State,” it said.
The Vatican added that the move was in line with a series of recommendations made by a group of cardinals advising the pope, including for a “more formal commitment” to enforcing transparency.
The move “will ensure better use of resources, improving the support available for various programs, particularly our works with the poor,” it said, echoing the pope’s famous call for a “poor Church for the poor”.
The new ministry, formally called a “Secretariat for the Economy”, will be run by a 15-member council of eight clergymen from different parts of the world and seven lay financial experts.
In his “motu proprio”, or decree, Francis also said that the Vatican’s Administration for the Patrimony of the Holy See, or APSA under its Italian acronym, would become the “Vatican central bank . . . with all the obligations and responsibilities of analogous institutions around the world”.
APSA is the agency that handles the Vatican’s extensive property portfolio. The announcement was being seen as an important first step in the pope’s vaunted ambition to overhaul the much-criticised Roman Curia, the central administration of the Catholic Church. — AFP.
Online Reporter