Cardinal George Pell has spoken of his surprise at the apparent extent of “criminality” involved in recent Vatican financial scandals.
Speaking in an interview with Associated Press Monday, the cardinal, who led the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy from 2014-2017, said that he regretted that his efforts to bring tough mechanisms for financial transparency and accountability had been vindicated by the details of recent scandals.
Until 2017, Pell led an effort called for by Pope Francis to bring order and accountability to the Vatican’s finances, which have long lacked centralized procedures, controls, or oversight, claiming at one point to have discovered hundreds of millions of euros being kept “off books” from the ordinary Vatican accounts.
Pell’s reforming efforts met with institutional resistance from some curial officials and departments, most notably Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who at the time of Pell’s tenure at the Secretariat for the Economy, was sostituto of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. Becciu at one point acted to cancel a contract Pell had made for an external audit of Vatican finances.
CNA has also reported that Pell and Becciu clashed repeatedly over financial affairs, including the use of Swiss banks to provide financing for different investments allegedly obscured from Vatican balance sheets, including the controversial purchase of a London building.
On Sept. 24, Becciu was asked by Pope Francis to resign from his Vatican job and from the rights of cardinals, and has denied subsequent media reports that he used Church funds to benefit family members, or that he had attempted to influence the outcome of a sex abuse trial against Cardinal Pell in Australia, which resulted in Pell taking a leave of absence from his curial post in 2017.
Last week, police found hundreds of thousands of euros in cash hidden in two homes of Fabrizio Tirabassi, a lay official at the Secretariat of State until his suspension, together with four other employees, last year. CNA has previously reported his links to the London deal, including to the broker arrested for allegedly extorting the Vatican.
Full story at Catholic News Agency.
Great article, thanks for the update. May the Lord continue to expose the evil. Even an alcoholic will not get help if he doesn’t acknowledge or see there is a problem. So I pray the truth continues to be exposed.
Like Fr. George Rutler being exposed? Yet another ostensibly solid, aggressively orthodox priest is having his closeted skeletons revealed. What is it with the church? The faithful are getting pummeled from every side. The pope and the libs are constant sources of consternation, and clerical scandals continue to beset the church. It’s almost like the church isn’t what she claims to be. I don’t get how God can let this happen and do nothing to help. Many of the faithful are weary, embattled, close to despairing, despondent, and feel like they’ve been kicked in the gut several times after being knocked to the ground.
The Rutler story is lame. You’re premature.
The video evidence indisputably confirms that he’s not the man he has pretended to be. That’s enough, by itself, regardless of what else is true.
I have never heard of Father George Rutler. I have read the allegations. I just want to say that showing someone from the back does not confirm their identify and videos are easy to fake these days.
i just know that you were an ‘are we there yet?’ kid, kevin. just behave and we’ll be there soon
I’ll make a small wager a lot of Cardinals are scared out of their minds of a thorough external audit which trained forensic accountants conduct.
mikem, you are correct, I believe. It all starts with the concept of “corporation sole,” whereby the Bishop owns all the property of the diocese. It also starts with the idea that a pastor owns the church. Some of this has changed in the US to avoid larger payoffs in the sex scandals. But, the point is that as folks rise in the church hierarchy, they tend to think that the money is theirs to do with as they wish, when in fact it is ours. I marvel at some denominations or congregations that don’t let their pastors touch the money or sign checks. The cardinals have sucker-punched the Pope’s efforts to clean up the curial mess.
Nothing having the words “Vatican” and “misconduct” in the same sentence would surprise me anymore.