Pope Francis has taken his boldest step yet to overhaul the Vatican's scandal-plagued finances, creating a new department with broad powers to oversee all of its economic and administrative affairs, the Vatican said on Monday.
The Secretariat for the Economy will answer directly to the pope and
will be headed by Australian Cardinal George Pell, currently the
archbishop of Sydney.
The
pope will also name an auditor with oversight powers, according to a
papal document known as a Motu Proprio, Latin for "by his own
initiative", formalizing the changes.
The Secretariat will be guided in policy making by a new 15-member
Council for the Economy, which will be made up of eight cardinals and
bishops and seven lay financial experts from the around the world.
The inclusion of the lay members was seen as a move by the pope to
bring more outside expertise into the often closed world of Vatican
finances to avoid repeats of scandals that have hit the Holy See for
decades.
In the Motu Proprio, the pope says that the Church must
see its possessions and financial assets in the "light of its mission to
evangelize, with particular concern for the most needy".
According to the changes, an existing economic department known as the
Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA), which manages
financial holdings and real estate, will formally assume the role of the
Vatican's central bank.
The
role and structure of the separate Vatican bank, formally known as the
Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), will not change for the time
being, a spokesman said.
Both
the IOR and APSA have been at the center of scandals. Italian
magistrates are investigating the IOR on allegations of money
laundering. The Vatican dismisses the charges.
Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, who worked as a senior accountant at APSA for
22 years and who had close ties to the IOR, is currently on trial for
plotting to smuggle millions of dollars into Italy from Switzerland to
help rich friends avoid taxes.
Scarano has also been indicted on separate charges of laundering
millions of euros through the IOR. He says the money in his accounts at
the IOR were from donations.
According the new structure, the Vatican Financial Information Authority
(AIF), which was set up in 2011 to monitor the Vatican's adherence to
international banking standards, will keep its current role.
The pope made his decision after an advisory panel of eight cardinals,
including Pell, suggested the changes to the pontiff at meetings last
week.
SOURCE:ROUTRE
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