Cardinal George Pell addressed recently ordained bishops in Rome last September.

The Tablet reported that the text of what he said has been released in a book of all the talks given to the bishops.

The Prefect of the Holy See's Secretariat for the Economy told the new bishops that spending in their dioceses must be kept under control.

Cardinal Pell said a bishop must act as a custodian of diocesan assets and firmly stated that he must "not sell land".

The cardinal stated: "This patrimony should be preserved and handed on to the bishop's successor."

"It belongs to the future and should not be spent on one generation."

When selling diocesan land, canon law provisions around stable patrimony and alienation of land must be followed by a bishop.

Cardinal Pell added that the leader of a diocese must understand financial basics and show an interest in the issues.

If he doesn't, Cardinal Pell explained, it "would give encouragement to thieves".

He continued: "One does not have to be an expert, but he must be able to see the holes in a ladder."

The cardinal said that "dishonesty is not unknown" in the Church.

He cited his first parish assignment as an assistant priest as an example without going into further details.

Cardinal Pell urged bishops to operate strict financial controls and employ a business manager to ensure guidelines are adhered to.

This manager should be more than an accountant, but "an entrepreneur" who understand finances, land matters and canon law.

Financial reporting is also cited as critically important along with strong internal controls to ensure cash is spent properly.

These measures will ensure that a diocese does not rack up an annual loss, something which the cardinal said should be "very rare".

Sources

• The Tablet
• CHAUSA
• Fr Achacoso blog
• Image: Yahoo News

After being accused of lavish spending, Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Limburg has travelled to Rome to meet officials at the Vatican, where Pope Francis has made it clear he prefers Church leaders to adopt a simple lifestyle.

Controversy over Bishop Tebart-van Elst has focused on cost overruns on his luxurious new residence complex and related renovations, now priced at $NZ50 million.

The bishop reportedly can afford this expenditure because German dioceses have untaxed secret reserves called the "bishop's chair", known only to the bishop and a few advisors.

In some older dioceses, "bishop's chair" reserves include age-old property holdings, donations from former princely rulers and funds from German states over the past two centuries.

As pressure increases for transparency in the Church's financial affairs, some dioceses are now revealing the extent of their "bishop's chair" funds.

Cologne, the largest and reportedly richest diocese in Europe, announced "in connection with the current discussion about Church finances" that its archbishop had reserves equal to $NZ268 million in 2012.

The small diocese of Trier, Germany's oldest, had a reserve of $NZ136 million and said part of its earnings went to pay damages to victims of the clerical sexual abuse scandals that rocked the German Church in recent years.

The increasing exodus of disillusioned Catholics from the Church in Germany has even alarmed the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, whose spokesman said the situation in Limburg was proving a burden to the Catholic Church.

Christians in Germany pay a church tax, which in 2012 raised more than $NZ8 billion for the Catholics and more than $NZ7 billion for the Protestant churches.

A Catholic who formally resigns from the Church no longer has to pay this tax.

Sources:

Reuters

The Tablet

Associated Press

Image: Vatican Insider