"I dream of a communication that is heart to heart, letting ourselves be touched by what is human, letting ourselves be wounded by the dramas that so many of our brothers and sisters live," the pope said Oct 31 at the end of the dicastery's plenary meeting.

In addition to listing a variety of "dreams" for how the Vatican's vast communications apparatus would inform people, shine a spotlight on truth and share stories of faith, Pope Francis added to his prepared remarks.

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Speaking in an interview on EWTN, the cardinal asserted that there is "no proof" of any wrongdoing and accused his detractors of attempting to tarnish his reputation.

"They have no arguments against my ideology and therefore they want to disavow or make defamation of my person" Müller said on "The World Over with Raymond Arroyo".

The allegations, which surfaced in a report by Catholic website The Pillar, claim that significant sums of money were mishandled during Müller's time at the CDF. They include accusations of large cash movements and the deposit of 200,000 euros into the cardinal's personal accounts.

"No money missing"

The accusations of financial impropriety reportedly influenced Pope Francis's decision not to renew Müller's appointment in 2017. However, the cardinal vehemently denied these claims, stating that all funds were properly managed and there were no irregularities.

Müller said these claims date back to "nine years ago" but that there was "no money missing" and that everything "was clarified with Cardinal [George] Pell" who led the Secretariat for the Economy at the time.

"There were no accusations against myself" Müller stated. He clarified that the account referenced was used for the congregation's mission and was not for personal use, with all transactions fully documented.

Addressing the timing of the allegations, Müller suggested they may be linked to the upcoming Synod on Synodality. He has been critical of some of the attendees for using it as an avenue to promote homosexuality and the ordination of women and advance other ideas contrary to Church doctrine.

He described the accusations as an "anonymous strategy" designed to discredit him as a participant in the synod.

Sources

Catholic News Agency

CathNews New Zealand

The Pillar

The investigation, initiated by the Vatican's Secretariat for the Economy under Cardinal George Pell, revealed that large sums of cash and unclear money transfers were linked to Müller's office.

Sources within the Vatican stated that around 200,000 euros intended for the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's (CDF) account were found in Müller's private account.

The findings were presented in 2015 to Pope Francis who requested Müller to return the funds. No further sanctions were imposed. However Müller's term was not renewed, due reportedly to the mishandling of finances during his leadership.

The investigation began when Vatican officials discovered that several departments were storing large amounts of undocumented cash.

Random checks were ordered, revealing attempts by employees of the CDF to remove plastic bags filled with cash.

"Here we were counting out thousands, thousands of euros in cash, in the office [of the CDF] which they were trying to move out the back door in plastic bags" an official said.

"It was just surreal."

Clerical error

This prompted a thorough financial investigation in the autumn of 2015. It uncovered over half a million euros which were embezzled, undocumented or otherwise unaccounted for. Other significant amounts were found in cash or in external bank accounts.

Müller attributed the transfer of 200,000 euros to his private account to a clerical error.

"It is hard to see how any kind of credible accounting process could allow for hundreds of thousands of euros to go unaccounted [for], or for hundreds of thousands to be deposited in the wrong accounts and have no one notice [until there was an external investigation" the official told The Pillar.

There is no evidence suggesting Müller intended to use the money for personal ends. However, panic within the DDF offices following the announcement of the checks likely led to the hasty cash removal.

"I don't think Cardinal Müller was looking to get rich from the dicastery" a source close to the secretariat said, "but I think the aim was to get all the cash, and it was a lot of cash, out of the office and out of sight."

Müller has yet to respond to inquiries from "The Pillar".

Read More

The Pillar

Katholisch

CathNews New Zealand

The profit was close to 6 million euros less than what the investments earned in 2021, the bishop said in the annual report of the administration, which is known by its Italian acronym, APSA, and controls most of the Vatican's portfolio, including real estate.

"Transparency of numbers, achievements and defined procedures is one of the tools we have at our disposal to ward off — at least in those who are free of preconceptions — unfounded suspicions regarding the extent of the church's assets, its administration or the fulfilment of the duties of justice, such as payment of due taxes and other tributes," the bishop wrote in his introduction to the 104-page report, which was published in early August.

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A hearing Thursday produced both a previously unknown, and unauthorised, recording of a phone call with Pope Francis, as well as testimony from the prosecution's star witness, who essentially blamed everyone in the system - both above him and below him, but not himself - for what went wrong.

Let's begin with the phone call.

The recording apparently was made by a relative of Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, one of the defendants in the trial, who's facing charges related to transfers of Vatican money to a Catholic charity in his native Sardinia and also his financial dealings with a self-described lay security consultant named Cecilia Marogna.

Although reporters and other members of the public were escorted out of the hearing room Thursday before the recording of the conversation was played, the news agency AdnKronos provided a transcript.

The recording occurred in late July 2021, just three days before the trial opened and not long after the pope's colon surgery, and the recording was apparently preserved on a cell phone belonging to one of Becciu's nephews.

In the call, Becciu clearly wanted Pope Francis to acknowledge that he had authorised payments through Marogna to a British firm to secure the release of a Colombian nun who had been kidnapped by Islamic militants in Mali in 2017.

The firm was paid roughly $350,000 for its expenses, and then $500,000 was paid in ransom.

The nun, Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez, was eventually released and met Pope Francis in the Vatican afterwards.

Asked if he remembered being briefed on the transactions, Francis appeared to confirm that he had been: "I remember that, vaguely, but I remember, yes, I had it [the information], yes."

Becciu then says he can't call the pope as a witness but asks him for a written statement that he had authorised the expenses. Francis suggests that Becciu put something on paper and send it to him, promising to look it over.

Prosecutors in the Vatican trial introduced the recording after having obtained it from Italian financial police, who are conducting their own investigation of a charity in Sardinia linked to Becciu.

Clearly, the prosecution hoped it would put Becciu in a bad light for having taped the pontiff surreptitiously, though defence attorneys pounced on it to argue that it illustrates why the pope needs to be questioned to establish what he knew and what he approved.

From the beginning, defence lawyers have argued that the people charged in the trial didn't do anything that wasn't fully approved by their superiors - including the "substitute," meaning the number two official in the Secretariate of State, at the beginning Becciu and now Venezuelan Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra; the Secretary of State, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin; and Pope Francis himself.

Prosecutors don't dispute that authorisation occurred but insist it was granted under false pretences because, they claim, the defendants misrepresented the nature of the transactions involved.

As for the star witness... continue reading

He has tried and failed twice to convince the court of his entitlement.

Not only have Becciu's claims been dismissed, but he has been ordered to pay thousands in damages and court costs to Italian newsmagazine L'Espresso.

Becciu filed the lawsuit against L'Espresso in November 2020.

His foray into the court came just weeks after Pope Francis sacked him from his curial positions and ordered him to resign his rights as a cardinal.

In his lawsuit, Becciu claimed L'Espresso's coverage of the financial scandal at the Secretariat of State had contributed unfairly to the pope's decision to fire him.

The media damaged his reputation so badly, Becciu told the court it would cost him the chance of being elected pope in a future conclave.

He sought 10 million euros in damages from L'Espresso.

The court has not stated exactly what Becciu said in his case, or how much he will have to pay in costs.

This is Becciu's second legal setback in as many weeks.

A losing streak

Becciu's attempts to prove his entitlement to compensation via Italy's legal system isn't working.

Earlier this month, a court in Como ordered him to pay nearly 50,000 euros in legal costs and damages. That judgement was the outcome of a lawsuit he filed against his former deputy at the Vatican Secretariat of State, Msgr Alberto Perlasca.

The Como court had already rejected Becciu's suit last December.

It picked up the case again this month, with a secondary ruling, where the judge found Becciu liable for abusing the legal process in trying to sue Perlasca.

Perlasca is the star witness for the prosecution in Vatican City, where Becciu is one of ten defendants on trial for financial crimes.

Becciu sought half a million euros from Perlasca. He claimed his former deputy's cooperation with Vatican investigators caused injury to his (Becciu's) health and lifestyle.

The Como court ruled last year there was "no concrete harmful conduct in the plaintiff's narrative".

It found Becciu's claims of harm "completely lacking in any … quantification" that would justify the damages he sought.

This month the court directed Becciu to pay 40,000 euro in court costs to Perlasca and a friend of Perlasca's named in Becciu's lawsuit. He was also ordered to pay Perlasca 9,000 euros in damages.

The Vatican City trial

In the ongoing Vatican City trial, Becciu is accused of abuse of office, embezzlement and conspiracy. He is also charged with attempting to suborn Perlasca's testimony.

In leaked footage of Perlasca's interviews with Vatican prosecutors, he confirmed that, acting on Becciu's instructions, he helped arrange over half a million euros in money transfers to Cecilia Marogna.

Marogna, a self-styled geo-political analyst, claims to have been Becciu's personal spy at the Secretariat of State.

Perlasca also said he prepared an envelope with about 15,000 euros in money transfers for Becciu, who told him Francis had approved them.

He said Becciu "became very angry" with him for discussing the transfers and had demanded to know why he had not deleted records of the transactions from secretariat records.

Source

• The Pillar

So far little has officially emerged from the meetings.

According to the accounts of those interviewed however, the pope encouraged all participants to speak from the heart.

One topic on the agenda was the newly-released Apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium, which Francis said reorganised the Vatican's central bureaucracy.

He explained to the cardinals the constitution followed discussions with the various Vatican offices.

Other topics for discussion at the closed-door meetings reportedly included allowing "any member of the faithful" to head important Vatican offices, envisioning greater decision-making roles for them, including women.

Until the constitution changed, major Vatican offices had to be headed by a "cardinal prefect or the presiding archbishop".

Participants noted that a substantial amount of time was dedicated to this change, including discussion about specifically which Vatican offices might be led by a layperson.

They said writings and comments from Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda and Cardinal Marc Ouellet provided the basis for many follow-up discussions on the role of the laity during the meeting.

Ghirlanda has said in the past that the "power of governance in the Church does not come from the Sacrament of [Holy] Orders," meaning ordination, but instead, from "canonical mission".

Ouellet has said the pope "can also delegate and thus make members of God's people participants in his power of jurisdiction".

Questions were reportedly raised about the constitution's requirement that the heads of each Vatican dicastery must serve five-year terms, renewable only once.

Some questioned whether an individual would be able to adequately grasp the inner workings of their Vatican office and execute their mandate in such a limited period.

Others reportedly noted this was necessary to help keep in check any clerical or careerist mentalities.

Some also advocated for limits to encourage global dioceses not to be hesitant in sending priests to serve at the Vatican out of a fear that they would never return home.

During the second day of meetings, a brief discussion held on the ongoing process for the 2021-23 Synod of Bishops has been reported and Francis's emphasis on church governance through synodality.

Widespread acclaim was also reported regarding efforts to clean up the Vatican's finances.

Last month, the Vatican made its financial statements public. New guidelines for all financial investments have also been published recently.

Source

• AP News
• NCR

The pope's rescript, issued on 23 August, clarifies the interpretation of a paragraph in the new constitution of the Roman Curia, Praedicate Evangelium, promulgated in March.

According to Francis' rescript, financial and liquid assets held in banks other than the IOR must be moved to the Vatican bank within 30 days of 1 September, 2022.

The IOR, based in Vatican City State, has 110 employees and 14,519 clients. As of 2021, it looked after 5.2 billion euros (NZD 8.3 billion) of client assets.

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"We are not looking for surpluses but for sustainability of the Holy See's service," Jesuit Father Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, told Vatican News on 5 August.

"A deficit of 3 million euros in a budget of 1.1 billion is not a lot; it is practically balanced, and it does not seem like a figure to cause concern. But if we do a more detailed analysis, there are some areas for improvement ahead," he said the day before the publication of the Holy See's consolidated financial statement for 2021.

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"As the pope has often repeated, it is not for us to serve the economy, but for the economy to serve us," said Father Guerrero at a symposium on Tuesday in Rome.

Guerrero, 63, is the Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy. He was appointed as the Vatican's financial czar in November 2019, filling the post left vacant by Australian Cardinal George Pell.

"The economy is not the primary activity of the Roman Curia. But it helps us to make it possible to carry out the mission of the Curia. It must do so without losing the credibility of the Church's mission," Father Guerrero said.

Asked to comment on the consequences Curia reform will likely have on the economic bodies of the Holy See, the Spanish Jesuit insisted on the need for transparency in the use of funds.

"And when it is necessary not to make public the use of certain funds, the request must be submitted to a special commission which will then control the use of the sum granted," he detailed.

He pointed to the existence of this commission which Pope Francis instituted in September 2020 to manage the exceptions to the rule of budgetary transparency now obligatory in the Roman Curia.

Several top Curia officials also attended the symposium.

Among them was Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, one of the leading architects of the Curia's reform.

"We are living in an era of change," he underlined.

"We are no longer in a regime of Christendom. That means we are no longer in a time of doctrine, but of proclaiming the faith," said the 74-year-old Italian, one of the pope's closest aides.

During his address, Cardinal Semeraro emphasised that the Curia must be seen as a "structure of service", not one of power.

"Being at the service means being part of an adaptable, flexible reality," he said.

The remark was seen as a direct criticism of any form of rigidity or resistance to change detected in some Vatican officials.

Sources

• La Croix International

The move comes after Moneyval offered a broadly positive assessment of financial security progress made at the Vatican over the last 12 years.

In 2009 The Holy See signed up to the European Monetary Convention, aiming to bring its financial institutions in line with international standards after years of financial scandals and for the last decade the Vatican has been working towards financial reform.

The last scheduled on-site inspections came in October 202 and Moneyval's latest report.

The newest report, released this month, emphasized, "the Holy See (including the Vatican City State) will be subject to MONEYVAL's regular follow-up reporting process as a result of the positive report."

"With regard to preventative measures, Moneyval underlines that the sole authorised institution [the Vatican Bank or IOR] has a sound understanding of its money laundering and financing of terrorism risks," the watchdog said.

However, the Moneyval annual report also flagged concerns about staffing and funding for financial security operations which it said delays Vatican money laundering investigations. Read More

Neither the Secretariat of State nor the Vatican press office have responded to those charges.

In December 2020, Pope Francis issued the motu proprio Una migliore organizzazione which was supposed to transfer control and oversight of key financial affairs out of the Secretariat of State after years of financial scandal.

The motu proprio ordered the secretariat to turn over control of its assets and investment portfolio, together worth billions of euros, to APSA, the Holy See's sovereign wealth fund, and "subject to an ad hoc control by the Secretariat for the Economy, which from now on will also perform the function of Papal Secretariat for economic and financial matters."

Pope Francis set a February deadline for the transfer of oversight and control on key financial matters to the financial secretariat.

But senior Vatican officials close to APSA, the Secretariat for the Economy, and the Secretariat of State, all told The Pillar that no progress has been made in granting the economic secretariat the control and oversight mandated by the pope.

The Secretariat of State's budget was also ordered to be submitted to the Secretariat for the Economy, but the office is "frozen out" of oversight and decision-making processes for the Secretariat of State and APSA, curial officials allege.

"There is no cooperation, none," one senior Vatican official close to the Secretariat for the Economy told The Pillar. "It is worse than in the time of Cardinal Pell."

"[The department is] simply not included in any of the necessary discussions or decision-making processes," the official added.

Cardinal George Pell was the first prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, appointed in 2014.

The cardinal was granted a leave of absence in 2017 to return to Australia to fight accusations of sexual abuse — charges on which he was acquitted by the country's High Court last year — and he did not return to his Vatican duties before his term ended in 2019.

Pell was succeeded by Fr. Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, SJ, on Jan. 1, 2020.

The senior official close to the Secretariat for the Economy told The Pillar that Alves has been "intensely frustrated" in his attempts to work with the Secretariat of State and to exercise oversight of the state department's financial affairs.

"Every effort is being made," he told The Pillar, "and every effort is met with evasion, obstruction, or just silence." Continue reading

• Image: Springfield diocese

Cecilia Marogna was arrested October 13 by Italian financial authorities after a warrant was issued by Vatican prosecutors through Interpol.

Marogna has said she worked for the Holy See's Secretariat of State as a security consultant and strategist.

Vatican authorities reportedly issued the warrant on charges of aggravated embezzlement. She has acknowledged receiving hundreds of thousands of euros from the Vatican via her company registered in Slovenia, and confirmed use of the funds for the purchase of luxury items, including designer label handbags.

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Pell and Becciu were known rivals in the bid to reform the finances of the Holy See before Pell returned to Australia to face child sex abuse charges.

"There is no connection between the two things," Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin (pictured) says. And no, he doesn't know how Pell plans to spend his time in Rome.

All he will say is Pell's return to Rome is domestic: that Pell asked to return in April after being acquitted on appeal by Australia's High Court for abusing two boys while serving as Archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s.

"There was no summoning of Pell by the pope. It was he who asked to come to Rome to end his stay here, because he still has his apartment, so he came here to close it up."

Pell's arrival last Wednesday, just days after Becciu - the pope's former chief of staff - resigned from his post as head of the Vatican's department for saints and from his rights as a cardinal.

Though no formal reason was given for his departure, Becciu told reporters he had been accused of embezzling 100,000 euros ($116,200) and diverting it to companies with family involved.

Before his conviction, Pell oversaw the Vatican's Secretariat for the Economy.

Pell's primary task was to clean up the Vatican's murky financial situation, but his efforts were met with resistance from Becciu who disagreed over the reform process.

In a lengthy interview with Australian journalist Andrew Bolt after his release, Pell suggested that the allegations against him could be related to his efforts to clean up Vatican financial corruption.

He said although he doesn't have evidence, he thinks the man who accused him of sexual abuse had been "used."

After Becciu's resignation, Pell issued a statement in which he "thanked and congratulated" the pope for firing Becciu.

The move was part of the pope's effort "to clean up Vatican finances," he said.

"I hope the cleaning of the stables continues in both the Vatican and Victoria, [Australia]" he said.

Source

• Crux Now
• Image: Crux Now

He made the comment when the Secretariat released the 2019 balance sheet for the Roman Curia last Thursday.

"We want the budget to explain how the Holy See uses its resources to carry out its mission," he added.

The balance sheet provides the Vatican's most detailed-ever financial figures.

His comments were made a week after the resignation of Cardinal Angelo Becciu from the Roman Curia, after over a year of new reports of various financial scandals involving Becciu and the Holy See's Secretariat of State.

Guerrero says he "reads the newspapers" and that "it is possible that, in some cases, the Holy See was not only badly advised but also cheated.

"I believe we are learning from past mistakes or recklessness," he said.

The Vatican may have been swindled before by unscrupulous dealings, but being like a house of glass would provide some assurance to the faithful that the Holy See's finances were being well-managed.

The balance sheet's publication coincides with an onsite financial inspection by Moneyval, the Council of Europe's anti-money laundering watchdog.

It is expected that the evaluation will look at the role of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA).

APSA is the Holy See treasury and sovereign wealth manager. It also administers payroll and operating expenses for Vatican City.

In 2018, Pope Francis asked for Vatican investments to be centralized under APSAs management.

Guerrero says work to centralise the investments in APSA is advancing "little by little."

He says in April he asked all dicasteries transfer their liquid assets to APSA, in anticipation of revenue loss due to Italy's coronavirus lockdown.

The following month, Guerrero said the Vatican forecast a reduction in income of between 30 percent and 80 percent for the next fiscal year as a result of the pandemic.

The Vatican's financial report for 2019, which was released on 1 October, shows the expenditure of 60 curial offices for 2019 was 318 million euros and its income was 307 million euros.

The report says the 11 million-euro deficit is smaller than the 2018 deficit because of 68 million euros in investment returns. The increase was "mostly attributable to the effect of the recovery of share prices in 2019," the report explains.

Financial statements for other Vatican entities which collaborate with the Holy See are not included in the report.

These entities include the governorate of Vatican City State and Peter's Pence, the pope's charitable fund which comes from an annual Church-wide collection.

These institutions and others present their results and report to the corresponding authorities.

The balance sheet shows overall income and expenditure figures for 2019 and a breakdown of how much went to each curial department.

Expense categories are listed as apostolic mission, assets management, and services and administration.

Source

• Reuters
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Vatican News

Denying the claims, Becciu issued a strongly worded statement saying: "I categorically deny interfering in any way in the trial of Cardinal Pell."

Becciu called the allegations against him "surreal" and a misunderstanding.

However, an Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera (Corriere) says a dossier - compiled by Vatican investigators and prosecutors - includes evidence of numerous bank transfers, including one amounting to 700,000 euro.

The Cardinal's department allegedly sent the funds to Australia through the apostolic nunciature to an unnamed "Australian account".

The funds were "extra-budgetary," and were transferred for "works to be done" on the nunciature.

The Corriere suggests the furtive activity could be linked Becciu and Pell's strained relationship, describing them as "enemies".

It also noted Pell was facing sex abuse charges in Australia when the funds were transferred.

Il Messaggero newspaper says Msgr Albert Perlasca, who was Becciu's deputy at the Secretariat, told investigators about the transfer of funds to Australia during their probe into Becciu's performance.

Perlasca and Becciu worked together for several years overseeing aspects of curial governance, including the investment Vatican finances.

Corriere also alleges Perlasca claims Becciu was known to "use journalists and contacts to discredit his enemies."

His history of clashes with Pell have been widely reported.

Cardinal Becciu's clash with Cardinal Pell came to a head in 2016 when the Australian ordered an audit of Vatican finances by an external accountancy firm. Soon after it was launched Cardinal Becciu overruled Cardinal Pell and blocked the audit.

A year later, he was behind the ousting of the Vatican's auditor-general, Libero Milone, who was accused of spying on officials.

"Milone was Pell's right-hand man and the enmity between Pell and Becciu was huge," Massimo Franco, the author of The Enigma of Bergoglio, a new book about Francis, said.

The scandal threatens to cast a shadow over Pope Francis' new encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, calling for human fraternity, love, charity and peace.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• National Catholic Register
• Image: Catholic News Agency

In 2014 Pope Francis appointed Pell, then aged 73, to lead the Vatican Secretariat of State. His role was to reform the Vatican's finances. However, his work halted in 2017 when he took leave to face abuse charges in Australia.

He was convicted of sexually abusing two boys in the 1990s and sentenced to six years in prison.

After serving 13 months of his sentence, Pell's conviction was overturned by the High Court in April this year.

He has been living in Sydney since his release.

Christopher Lamb, who is the Rome correspondent for The Tablet newspaper and says all eyes will be on Pell in Rome.

"The Cardinal has a number of supporters in Rome and some very loyal followers," Lamb says.

"There will be a number of them who will be delighted to see him return - they always were very sceptical of the charges that were brought against him.

"However there will be others who will be concerned about the optics of a return by Cardinal Pell to Rome and the Vatican … particularly if the cardinal has a meeting, an audience, with Pope Francis."

Another Vatican-based journalist, Joshua McElwee, from the National Catholic Reporter, says Pell is no longer employed by the Vatican.

The reason for Pell's visit is not clear. "At the moment he has no official role here," McElwee says.

"Very likely he's coming to put his affairs in order. I imagine he still has personal items here, things to bring home, perhaps an apartment to clean up.

"I don't know what else he would be doing other than those kind of things."

Pell's return to Rome comes just days after Cardinal Angelo Becciu's resigned from his position at the Roman Curia on 24 September.

Many Vatican sources say both Vatican prosecutors and the Italian Guardia di Finanza are expected to lay criminal charges of financial misconduct at the Vatican against Becciu.

Several of Becciu's employees and closest collaborators are also being investigated by Vatican prosecutors and are expected to face criminal charges alongside Becciu.

In a former role at the Vatican's Secretariat of State, Becciu reportedly clashed with Pell over the Vatican financial reforms Pell was leading.

"Becciu apparently was involved in some kind of alleged financial misdeeds and Pell has said that he raised issues about those at the time," McElwee says.

Whether Pell's visit has anything to do with Becciu's resignation is not known.

Lamb says Pell's visit coincides with a period of uncertainty in Francis's pontificate.

Many people are speculating that Pell could be seeking to influence the outcome of a future conclave to decide the next Pope.

"There is a battle going on and the Cardinal is certainly seen by those who don't like Francis as someone who is an ally."

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• The New Daily
• Image: ABC

His resignation followed an unscheduled meeting with the pope. Francis told him he had lost his trust and ordered him to step down.

News of Becciu's resignation was followed by reports that Italian businessman Gianluigi Torzi has provided detailed information to investigators in the ongoing Vatican financial scandal.

Torzi was arrested by Vatican investigators in June and charged with "extortion, embezzlement, aggravated fraud and self-laundering,".

After his arrest, he spent three days with Vatican authorities, walking them through details of the case.

Italian authorities are now helping to track several hundred million euros of Vatican funds.

Francis has also appointed an Italian lawyer and professor of commercial law to work as an additional prosecutor in the Vatican City State's court.

The new appointment is fueling expectation that Becciu and several of his former colleagues at the Secretariat of State could face criminal prosecution in Vatican City.

It has also been reported that a brewing company owned by Becciu's brother Mario, received a 1.5 million euro loan.

The loan was provided by Angolan businessman Antonio Mosquito, who has links with the Cardinal and the Secretariat of State.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu served as apostolic nuncio to the African nation from 2001-2009.

In 2012, having moved to Rome as sostituto of the Secretariat of State, he was involved in the secretariat's consideration of a reported $200 million investment in Mosquito's company Falcon Oil. He served in that role for nearly 10 years.

He was made a cardinal and placed in charge of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in 2018.

After vetting the deal for a year, the secretariat decided instead to invest the money with Italian businessman Raffaele Mincione.

That decision led to the controversial purchase of a London building - and which kicked off the current investigation.

Becciu says the money was intended to help children with autism.

The following morning, a story accusing Becciu of using his positions in the curia to funnel money to members of his own family was published.

Becciu's resignation followed more than a year of reporting about various financial scandals involving Becciu and the Holy See's Secretariat of State.

Many of these reports stemmed from the Secretariat's investments through Italian businessman Raffaele Mincione, an associate of Torzi's, including the purchase from him of the London property for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Italian police served a search and seizure warrant on Mincione in July, issued at the request of Vatican prosecutors.

Investigators took away cell phones and tablets for examination in relation to the case.

Mincione has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Lawyers for the Becciu family have lodged official complaints for the "slander and aggravated defamation" of their clients and for "illegal leakage of confidential information and documents" to media.

Since October 2019, investigators in Vatican City have raided several Vatican departments in connection with the London property deal and investments.

Computers and phones were seized and several staff members were suspended.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: MSN.com

Like other major visitor hotspots, the Vatican is predicting big losses and has had to make cutbacks.

The museums (which include the Sistine Chapel) cost about €20 (about $NZ35) to visit.

Normally, tens of thousands of people arrive every day, generating millions of dollars in revenue.

Between 2016 and 2020 the Vatican reported constant income and expenses: revenue, in the region of €270 million, with expenses at around €320 million,, leaving a running deficit.

However, the Vatican stresses it will not default on its financial obligations.

Besides the losses from Vatican tourism, public donations are down, both through Peter's Pense (direct donations to the Holy See) and contributions from the Dioceses.

It costs a lot to run Vatican City and the Pope's business, Father Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy says.

He says best-case projections show a loss of 25 percent whilst worst-case predictions predict a loss of 40 percent.

Pope Francis has issued new guidelines for Holy See belts to be tightened.

All expenditure must be approved by a new central ordering system through set vendors, to establish "a process of economic efficiency and sustainability."

The Vatican was built in 326 AD. Palaces were later added by consecutive popes and it grew to become one of many Papal states under Roman rule, but it is the only one to have survived.

It sits inside a wall within Italy's capital city Rome and is the spiritual heart of the Roman Catholic church.

Vatican City is unique in that it is deemed a nation state in its own right. It is the smallest state in the world for its land size and population and has about 1,000 permanent residents, including the pope.

Source

• Forbes
• Image: Glen Innes Examiner

Leslie Ferrar, is one of six women Pope Francis appointed to the board overseeing the Holy See's finances.

Reforming the Vatican's management practices has been a priority for the Francis.

Ferrar shares the Pope's desire to ensure the Holy See's finances are handled with honesty and transparency.

She says she uses a simple check to decide if something meets the honesty and transparency test.

"If you were talking to a judge in court would you be able to explain what you had done and not be embarrassed?"

In a church setting: "Is what you are doing a sin? If it's a sin then you shouldn't be doing it. I think helping people understand what a sin is, rather than it just being okay … is what we need to do," Ferrar says.

Ferrar hails her appointment as a step toward "an element of diversity" as she is among the first female members of the council.

The fifteen person council is made up of eight cardinals and bishops and seven lay people. Just one of the lay people is male.

"It's up to me and my fellow lay members to make sure that it's not lip service and that it really will make a difference," she says.

"I think women in the Church in general, and women anywhere, want to make sure that any organisation is represented in the management of it by the people that participate in it."

A lifelong Catholic, Ferrar is no stranger to working with the Holy See. She has advised the Institute for the Works of Religion (ie the Vatican bank) on corporate governance.

"We introduced a huge amount of proper governance, basic processes and procedures."

"For me that was a huge step forward in getting the bank working in a proper way. Because it is a proper bank, and therefore it should run properly with proper processes. Did we get to absolutely where you should be? No, you never are. But huge steps were made."

Ferrar says she admires the pope's work on financial reform, and she points to the progress made in setting up a functioning regulatory system.

"I hope that I will really be able to help the Pope, because he is fundamentally a really good person, and he wants the Holy See to run properly, and we've got to try and help that happen."

She credits her parents, her upbringing and the nuns who taught her with helping her understand the value of integrity.

"You have to tell the truth, you have to act with integrity, even if it costs you. Don't bother getting up if you don't do that," she says.

Source

• The Tablet:
• Image: The Straits Times