VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
The prefect for the Secretariat for the Economy talks of millions of euro at the disposal of the Holy See that have not been recorded. Lombardi: “They are neither illegal nor badly administered”
ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY
“During the work on reforming Vatican finances we’ve discovered hundreds of millions of euros off the Vatican’s balance sheet”. These words by Australian Cardinal George Pell were the subject of much discussion. Pell is the prefect for the Secretariat for the Economy and a member of C9, who spoke about this in a piece on the historical weekly magazine Catholic Herald. The cardinal explained that because of these off-balance funds, the financial situation of the Holy See is better than it might have seemed after the approval of the advisory balance for the year 2013, which declared a deficit of 24 million euros.
Pell wrote that “Apart from the pension fund, which needs to be strengthened for the demands on it in 15 or 20 years, the Holy See is paying its way, while possessing substantial assets and investments”
. The prefect spoke of hundreds of millions of euros off the balance sheet: “Congregations, Councils and, especially, the Secretariat of State enjoyed and defended a healthy independence. Problems were kept ‘in house’ (as was the custom in most institutions, secular and religious, until recently). Very few were tempted to tell the outside world what was happening, except when they needed extra help.” The cardinal then affirmed that “for centuries unscrupulous figures took advantage of the Vatican’s financial naïvety and secretive procedures”
The events that took place few months after the election of Pope Francis are well known. There were changes at the top of the IOR and the council of cardinals, who help the Pope in the reformation of the Curia, decided firstly to address the question of the reorganisation of the management of the Holy See’s finances. Cardinal Pell’s words, who told Associated Press that he is symbolically moving his office to the IOR, hinted at the existence of slush funds.
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