Cardinal George Pell rides currency to shrinking Vatican deficit

George Pell has put his colleagues in the Holy See on notice — the Vatican’s deficit needs to be ­addressed.

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, left, and Cardinal George Pell wait for the arrival of Pope Francis on the occasion of a mass where the pontiff bestowed the Pallium, a woolen shawl symbolizing their bond to the pope, to new Metropolitan Archbishops, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on June 29, 2015.

Vatican financial chief George Pell last night put his colleagues in the Holy See on notice — the Holy See’s deficit needs to be ­addressed.

The Vatican released its most comprehensive and transparent balance sheet and the ­financial picture is mixed.

The Vatican deficit fell from €37.2 million ($54.7m) in 2013 to €25.6m last year. The 30 per cent improvement was mainly due to currency fluctuations that boosted returns on investments.

“But we can’t continue like this for too much longer,’’ Cardinal Pell said in Rome last night.

No staff would be made ­redundant, the Australian said, but reorganisation of investments, staff development and economies would be needed.

A working group has been set up to identify changes to ­improve investment returns.

“We’ve also got to make our investments work harder,’’ Dr Pell said.

He was pleased at progress in bringing Vatican departments into line with modern accounting standards. “We’ve made a solid start to the innings but we need to bat on,” he said.

The accounts released yesterday were preferred by the ­Prefecture for Economic Affairs and the new Secretariat for the Economy and reviewed by external auditors.

The Director of the Office of the Prefect of the Economy, Danny Casey, the former financial guru for the archdiocese of Sydney, said the Vatican had identified €1.1bn in assets and ­liabilities in €222m previously off balance sheet.

As in previous years, the most significant expense for the Holy See was the cost of its 2880 staff, which totalled €126m.

Asked if it took blood, sweat and tears to get the Vatican ­accounts to this point Mr Casey said “just a bit”. But, he said: “We’ve got our arms around it now and we know where to start.”

The statements showed the Vatican’s main sources of ­income in 2014, were investments, the Institute of Religious Works (Vatican Bank) and contributions from churches around the world.