VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
Robert Mickens | Jul. 21, 2015 A Roman Observer
The Vatican published its annual financial statement last week and Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, says it’s the most accurate accounting of the money situation at Roman Catholic HQ ever.
Some of his admirers and scribes in the press called it the “most comprehensive and transparent balance sheet” the Vatican has ever published.
It is not at all clear where they got that notion, but Pell and his right-hand finance man, Danny Casey, are probably laughing. Yes, all the way to the bank.
The reality is that this newly published financial report is not at all transparent or detailed and probably not completely accurate — at least not in the information that has been made public.
The document released July 16 is the briefest of summaries (a bit more than a page and a half in English and about the same length in Italian) of two different financial statements.
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