MOSCOW, December 6 (Sputnik) — Cardinal Pell, appointed by Pope Francis to clean up the Vatican's shadowy finances, has confirmed that the Holy See is not broke and its financial situation is much healthier than initially thought.
This revelation was published by the Cardinal in the London-based Catholic Herald magazine and follows a series of scandals involving the Vatican Bank, which had been suspected of laundering money.
“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,” the Cardinal wrote.
“In fact, we have discovered that the situation is much healthier than it seemed, because some hundreds of millions of euros were tucked away in particular sectional accounts and did not appear on the balance sheet. It is another question, impossible to answer, whether the Vatican should have much larger reserves.”
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, told reporters on Friday that the money did not represent “illegal, illicit or badly managed funds,” but was money that was never included in the Vatican’s old system of budgeting and reporting.
Following his election last year, Pope Francis immediately began major reforms to bring the Vatican into line with international standards with respect to transparency and money laundering.
“Since his election, Pope Francis has explicitly endorsed the program of financial reforms, which are well under way and already past the point where it would be possible to return to the ‘bad old days’. Much remains to be done, but the primary structural reforms are in place,” Cardinal Pell wrote.
“When Pope Francis realized that the Vatican financial systems had evolved in such a way that it was impossible for anyone to know accurately what was going on overall, he appointed an international body of lay experts to examine the situation and propose a reform program.”
“In the New Year an auditor general will be appointed, answerable to the Holy Father, but autonomous and able to conduct audits of any agency of the Holy See at any time. The auditor general will be a lay person.”
“These reforms are designed to make all Vatican financial agencies boringly successful, so that they do not merit much press attention. Such ambitions cannot ensure that we will not find some static on the lines in the next year or so.”
