Pope: New mentality on Vatican finances needed

VATICAN CITY
The Local

Pope Francis told the first meeting of a newly-formed Vatican committee to reform Catholic Church finances that it should aim for transparency and helping the needy on Friday.

Francis told the group there should be a “new mentality” in the Vatican and a reform of the bureaucracy to ensure “it better serves the Church.”

Francis created the group following accusations of financial mismanagement and fraudulent behaviour in the highest echelons of the Catholic Church, including in the Vatican bank and its real estate assets agency.

The committee represents “the Church’s awareness of its responsibility in protecting and managing its assets carefully in view of its mission to evangelise and particularly to help the needy,” the pope said.

“Do not abandon this path: transparency and efficiency for this aim,” he said, adding: “It will not be easy and it will require courage and determination.”

Francis was speaking a day after the first meeting of another Vatican committee he has set up to tackle the issue of child sex abuse by priests in response to a wave of scandals that have engulfed the Church.

The Vatican has vowed zero tolerance against predators.

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