Pope Francis has named an international commission of eight business and legal experts — mainly lay people, including one woman — to plan a reform of the Holy See’s economy and administrative structures.
The commission’s president, Maltese economist Dr Joseph Zahra, is already an auditor of the Vatican’s budget management office.
The other members come from France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Singapore. The sole female is Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, a public relations and communications executive for Ernst & Young in Italy.
Pope Francis said the aim is “the simplification and rationalisation of the existing bodies and more careful planning of the economic activities of all the Vatican Administrations”.
This is to include avoiding misuse of economic resources, improving transparency in purchasing goods and services, refining the administration of goods and real estate, and working with “greater prudence” in the financial sphere.
Cardinal Wilfred F. Napier of Durban, a member of the Council of Cardinals for the Study of the Organisational and Economic Problems of the Holy See, said the Pope told the cardinals he wanted a study group to come up with ways the Vatican could better manage “what, why and how” monetary resources are being used by the different offices and entities.
The South African cardinal told Catholic News Service the biggest problem is the lack of a “unified finance controller and policy” in the Vatican.
He said some offices work together and some are independent when it comes to budgeting and oversight. The patchwork approach means “no one knows what’s going on” in the big picture.
Coming from an Anglo-Saxon culture, he said he is used to a budgeting approach that involves the allocation of a set amount of resources along with a review of how the resources were used and why.
However, he found the method of accounting being used at the Vatican seemed to involve simply calculating annual profits and losses, and comparing those figures to past years.
“For us it’s a bit strange. It doesn’t seem normal,” Cardinal Napier said, but until now no one at the Vatican seemed to understand why he and other cardinals found that odd.
Sources:
Image: Di-ve
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