ROME
Crux
One of Italy’s most respected political journalists wrote on Saturday in “Corriere della Sera,” considered the country’s paper of record, that the “shock therapy” Francis tried to impose on Vatican finances has yielded “thin results.” Massimo Franco also suggested things are drifting back toward what Vatican insiders call “normality,” meaning the situation prior to the initial reforms three years ago, and that another key figure in the pope’s attempted reform may soon be gone.
Perceptions of setbacks and power struggles, the recent exits of two key financial officials, and a Vatican trial for misappropriation of funds in which a cardinal at the heart of the affair has not been charged or even investigated, all have prompted some observers to start writing obituaries for the pontiff’s plans for a sweeping reform of Vatican finances.
One of Italy’s most respected political journalists didn’t go quite that far on Saturday, but writing in Corriere della Sera, considered the country’s paper of record, Massimo Franco declared that the “shock therapy” Francis imposed on Vatican finances has yielded “thin results,” and that things are drifting back toward what Vatican insiders call “normality,” meaning the situation prior to the initial reforms three years ago.
In particular, Franco said that the Secretary of State, the Vatican’s powerful central coordinating department, is reacquiring its traditional supremacy with regard to financial management. Curbing that domination originally was considered among the pillars of Francis’s reforms.
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