At first glance Thursday’s surprise announcement from the Vatican looks like a routine matter: a shift in office responsibilities. But look more carefully, and the announcement is remarkable for three things:
- a rare display of candor;
- a rebuke for the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin; and
- a vindication for Cardinal George Pell.
Even after the multiple financial scandals of recent years, the Vatican is notoriously tight-lipped. If anyone were to draw his information solely from official Vatican announcements, he would have only the vaguest of notions that some unpleasantness had occurred. The Vatican press office, true to form, couched the November 5 announcement in a dull, wordy release, providing a list of the Vatican officials who had attended a meeting the previous evening and announcing the formation of a new commission to carry out the Pope’s orders….
Vatican News, another official house organ, provided more context for the story, with a focus on the letter that Pope Francis had sent in August to the Secretariat of State, calling for a transfer of the Secretariat’s investment funds to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA). The Pope wrote that this transfer was “of the utmost importance” and should be done as quickly as possible. If the funds could not be transferred immediately, the Pontiff said, the Secretariat should “at least, dispose of them in such a way as to eliminate all reputational risks.”
The “reputational risks,” of course, arise from the sort of shady financial deals that the Secretariat of State has made recently—the sort of deals that have prompted criminal investigations, and led to the ouster of Cardinal Angelo Becciu from the Roman Curia; the sort of deals that have cost the Vatican millions of dollars in lost investment, along with further millions in fees to the people who presided over the losses. The Pope’s letter was an unmistakable signal that he wanted to ensure that the Secretariat of State could never make such investment blunders again.
The Pope’s letter to Cardinal Parolin could be summarized, roughly but not inaccurately, as saying: “Your office has been badly burned, and it’s damaged the reputation of the Holy See. We must take action to see that this never happens again.”
No one enjoys receiving that sort of message, and for Cardinal Parolin, the papal letter must have carried a special sting. The Secretariat of State had in the past strongly defended Cardinal Becciu. Now he was charged with cleaning up the mess that Becciu had created—and doing it quickly.
In the November 5 release, the Vatican announced that the new commission was charged with transferring funds from State to APSA within three months. That’s an extraordinarily tight deadline, measured by ordinary Vatican standards; notice that it took the same amount of time—three months—from the date of the Pope’s urgent letter in August to the date of the meeting at which officials decided what to do about that letter. Now the new commission is being asked to wind up complex financial deals in the same amount of time: very likely an impossible task….
The Vatican’s November 5 announcement comes shortly after Cardinal George Pell returned to Rome, newly cleared of the spurious sex-abuse charges that had taken him off the scene. Was that timing a coincidence? Maybe, but the symbolism was hard to miss.
During his tenure as prefect for the Secretariat of the Economy, Cardinal Pell had clashed repeatedly with the Secretariat of State, and in particular with then-Archbishop Becciu. The Australian cardinal lost those rounds of intramural battling, and eventually was driven from the Vatican scene—with more than a few observers suspecting that Becciu and his allies had a hand in encouraging the Australian prosecutors who called Pell home to face conviction and months of imprisonment before his first vindication.
Now comes a second vindication. Before he left Rome, Cardinal Pell had campaigned to bring the investments of the Secretariat of State under control, to ensure accountability for the State budget. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, Pope Francis has ordered the sort of reforms for which the Australian cardinal had fought, several years ago.
The above comes from a Nov. 6 story by Phil Lawler on Catholic Culture. org.
Well, God bless Pope Francis for finally telling some people to clean up things instead of telling them to make a mess. May the cleanup continue.
I wish the pope would rebuke some of the things he’s said himself.
How long until Francis sends a congratulatory message to Biden for winning the presidential election?
@ Kevin T — Thumbs up for your spot-on comment!
I hope the Pope does contact President-elect Biden as you suggest!
He’s not our President yet.
Satan’s “presidency straight from Hell!” Immoral, anti-Catholic, pro-promiscuity, contraception and abortion, anti-religious freedons, Anti-Life, Pro-Death and Evil, pro-“gay sex” perversions– the total Death Culture Presidency! And VP Harris?? Horrifically demonic! A demonic-led future awaits poor Americans! But Christ and Our Lady will triumph, in the end! We all have to fast and pray– a lot!! Offer up lots of sacrifices! Millions of Rosaries!! Millions of Divine Mercy Chaplets! Conversions of millions of lost souls are badly needed! God help us! But Christ is our True King, and His Kingdom is not of this world! Christ and Our Lady promised they will triumph, in the end!
thumbs up on your spot on comment
I am sincerely trying to understand your position. If Mr. Biden’s election by the majority of the American people is the work of Satan, was the 2016 result God’s work? If so, then what did the current administration do to turn God’s hand from our country? Is this year’s result not God’s will just because you disagree with the majority?
As I see it God allows evil so that more good may come of it. Perhaps this will motivate more people to fight evil. Biden is just a vessel that the Left is using to further the “culture of death”. I personally don’t believe he knows what he’s doing.
Dona Nobis… Biden-Harris are of the Death Culture– which is of Satan. There are lots of Americans who are in Satan’s Death Culture– who need to be evangelized and led to Christ!
I hope he tells him to stop taking sacrilegious Communions as Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI gave an order — which Mc Carrick and others hid, trashed canned to be specific — that politicians who vote for abortion — should not be given Holy Communion until they repented — which could only be publicly as it was a public sin.
For the sake of Biden’s own soul, by the way.
The Pope’s letter to Cardinal Parolin: “…Your office has been badly burned, and it’s damaged the reputation of the Holy See. We must take action to see that this never happens again.”
Why keep Cardinal Parolin in the position if he was so incompetent or imprudent?
Any supervisor would remove him to an area that was more fitting to his limitations.
Will he have to be watched and micro-managed to prevent future error?
This just seems like a slap on the wrist ? window dressing?
Since “Cardinal Pell had campaigned to bring the investments of the Secretariat of State under control, to ensure accountability for the State budget…”
wouldn’t re-assigning Cardinal Pell be an action to take?
People would be more trustful of their donations to the Vatican / Peter’s Pence if an expert like Cardinal Pell was in charge.
Maybe the Pope should hire a good Catholic like the soon-to-be-unemployed Attorney General of the United States, William Barr. (He could offer to trade James Martin for Barr with the Biden/Harris apparatchiks.) And bring back Cardinals Pell, Muller and Burke. Then, maybe a clean up of the Vatican could begin (again).