George Pell vindicated by Vatican finances clean-up

In a humiliation of the Vatican’s most senior department, the Secretariat of State, Pope Francis has removed its role as manager of many of the church’s financial investments and real estate holdings.

Pope Francis. Picture: AFP

In a humiliation of the Vatican’s most senior department, the Secretariat of State, Pope Francis has removed its role as manager of many of the church’s financial investments and real estate holdings.

The Pontiff’s announcement, dated December 26, takes effect from New Year’s Day. The move comes after decades of corruption, theft, bad investments, incompetence, kickbacks to corrupt associates, nepotism and the squandering of money donated in good faith by churchgoers.

The problems stretch back at least to the 1960s, or even earlier.

The radical change is a vindication of George Pell’s work as Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy from 2014 to 2017, when he sought to centralise and professionalise the Vatican’s sclerotic money and asset management systems and introduce professional auditing and transparency to its operations.

His efforts were thwarted repeatedly, by the Secretariat of State, especially its former deputy, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu. While Cardinal Becciu initially enjoyed the confidence of the Pope, revelations over the past two years of secret Swiss bank accounts and the purchase of a London property at an inflated price appear to have changed the Pontiff’s mind. In September, Cardinal Becciu resigned the privileges that are extended to members of the College of Cardinals.

The changes are also a major blow to the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s second most senior official. The Pope told Cardinal Parolin of the changes in a letter in August. The process was then set out by a special “Commission of transfer and control’’.

In his statement, Pope Francis said control and supervision of the economic and financial activities of the Holy See was fundamental in the reform of the Curia “to ensure transparent and efficient management’’.

From January 1, “the ownership of funds and bank accounts, of securities and real estate investments, including investments in companies and investment funds, up until now registered in the name of the Secretariat of State” would be transferred to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, or APSA, the Pope wrote in his statement.