AUSTRALIA/VATICAN CITY
The Australian
TESS LIVINGSTONE
THE AUSTRALIAN
JUNE 8, 2016
Australian Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s treasurer, today turns 75, the age when Catholic bishops automatically submit their resignations to the pope. Cardinal Pell, however, has been asked by Pope Francis to continue working until 2019.
After Pope Francis visited the office of the Secretariat for the Economy last month, Cardinal Pell’s office said in a statement he would “be continuing with his current role for the full five-year term”. He was appointed to clean up the Vatican’s corrupt financial system in February 2014.
“The Holy Father said he fully supported their work and re-emphasised the ongoing need for transparency in continuing with their reforms,” its statement said. About 4000 Vatican Bank accounts of individuals and organisations not entitled to hold them have been closed and 200 have been referred to authorities.
Cardinal Pell’s secretariat is also engaged in a battle with the powerful Secretariat of State, after Italian Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the number two official in that office, suspended an external audit of Vatican finances by international accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, which was trying to improve the transparency of Vatican finances to international anti-money-laundering standards.
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