Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Pope Francis, coming up on his one year anniversary of being elected, has made some big changes at the Vatican Bank.  He has created a new, outside auditor-general position for the financial holdings at the Vatican, and made him directly accountable to the office of the Pope.  This "Secretariat of the Economy" will have broad oversight, and will be able to conduct financial audits of anyone, at any time.

To take this post, the Pope has appointed the Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell--a strong proponent of transparency and a Vatican outsider.
Al-Jazeera English explains:
The Secretariat, effectively a new ministry, will be headed by Pell and guided in policy making by a new 15-member Council for the Economy made up of eight prelates and seven lay financial experts "with strong professional financial experience" from around the world, according to the statement.The Motu Proprio's title is "Faithful and Prudent Administrator." A Vatican statement said the changes "will enable more formal involvement of senior and experienced experts in financial administration, planning and reporting and will ensure better use of resources, improving the support available for various programs, particularly our works with the poor and marginalized."
Read the whole article here. 

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