Pope Francis has moved to confirm the authority of Cardinal George Pell in cleaning up the Vatican’s finances.
In a new set of legislative norms approved by the Pope, the Secretariat for the Economy, headed by Cardinal Pell, has been given sweeping powers.
Francis appears to have largely put aside recommendations from the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts which would have curbed some of Cardinal Pell’s authority.
The norms specify that Cardinal Pell is to have the power to issue executive decrees to all Vatican departments about their guidelines and procedures.
This is “aimed at effective planning, budget forecasting and management of human, financial and material resources entrusted to the departments of the Roman Curia”.
Cardinal Pell’s office will be able to mandate financial standards for Vatican departments, as well as having power to monitor and review the implementation of such standards.
The norms specify that the secretariat is to create one centralised budget for the entire Vatican and a consolidated balance sheet to show earnings and expenditures of each curial office.
The norms do, however, make a distinction in the secretariat’s power over the Vatican City State and the Holy See, the Vatican’s diplomatic entity.
While the laws state clearly that the secretariat “controls the annual budget and the final budget of the State of Vatican City”, they state that the office “prepares” the budget for the Holy See.
The Pope also wrote that the secretariat is to help in processing Vatican salaries, creating hiring and firing practices for employees, proposing professional training courses, and managing personal data of Vatican staff.
Cardinal Pell is also empowered to ask a new auditor-general to make specific reviews of any Vatican office.
The new auditor-general, yet to be appointed, will have near-complete authority to investigate irregularities in accounting – extending even to unannounced on-site investigations of Vatican offices.
Whistleblowers are protected under the norms, which have been approved on a trial basis for an unspecified period of time.
The only apparent concession to Cardinal Pell’s critics is that the secretariat will not administer Vatican real estate.
The Council for the Economy oversees the work of the secretariat.
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