UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Dennis Coday | Dec. 3, 2014
“Vatican reformers have discovered hundreds of millions of euros that did not appear on the Holy See’s balance sheet,” says Cardinal George Pell, the pugnacious Australian conservative Pope Francis chose earlier this year to put the Vatican’s finances in order.
Arcane accounting practices and fiercely guarded departmental independence have kept “some hundreds of millions of euros … tucked away in particular sectional accounts,” Pell writes in current issue of The Catholic Herald, a weekly publication from the United Kingdom.
The Vatican’s finances are much healthier than many had thought, Pell writes. “It is important to point out that the Vatican is not broke. 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.”
In February Pope Francis created a new Council of the Economy to monitor all economic and administrative activities of the Holy See. The make up of the council is unique: instead of being dominated by Italian prelates, seven of the council’s 15 members are laypeople — experts in finance — and they come from a variety of nationalities.
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