UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture
By Phil Lawler | Jul 11, 2016
Here’s what you need to know about the latest reconfiguration of the Vatican’s financial agencies:
* The Secretariat for the Economy was established to carry out reforms in the wake of financial scandals, to establish transparency and accountability.
* The proposed reforms irked some veteran Vatican officials, and sparked internal disputes. As a result of which…
* The power of the Secretariat for the Economy—the engine driving the financial reform—has been reduced.
In short, the motu proprio released on Saturday is another blow to the cause of transparency and accountability at the Vatican. As veteran Vatican-watcher John Allen observed, it is a victory for the “old guard”—the entrenched bureaucracy that blocks any significant change in the way the Roman Curia do business.
Just to make things clear, Cardinal Pell’s office is not having its wings clipped because of financial scandals. (“Pope reins in Vatican’s finance minister after scandal,” read one widely circulated headline, getting the story completely upside-down.) The Secretariat for the Economy was created because of the scandals. The money-laundering charges, the massive cost overruns, the no-bid contracts, the undervalued assets, the leaked confidential information, the undocumented expenses—all these took place before Cardinal Pell set up his new shop in 2014. The Secretariat helped bring these problems to light, set up procedures to guard against them, and in some cases took over the responsibilities that other offices had proven unable to handle cleanly.
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