Pope Francis spent all 2020 cleaning up the Vatican's finances

Known as a globetrotting pope who conducts most of his diplomacy through words and gestures while traveling, Pope Francis found himself with more time on his hands last year with international travel halted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The pontiff was supposed to visit Malta, East Timor, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, and probably would also go to other places later in the year. Instead, he found himself forced to stay in Rome - and that prolonged immobility provided him with the time he so much needed to focus on cleaning his own yard, perhaps particularly when it comes to money.

The Vatican is currently juggling several significant difficulties on the financial front. Not only is the Holy See looking at the barrel of a $ 60 million deficit for 2020, but it also faces a looming pension crisis caused in part by the Vatican being too organic for its resources and struggling to meet the payroll leaves alone by setting aside a reserve for when these employees retire.

Additionally, the Vatican is also dependent on contributions from dioceses and other Catholic organizations around the world, which has been curtailed as the dioceses themselves face COVID-related shortcomings as Sunday Mass collections have significantly dried up in places where liturgies public have been suspended. or had limited participation due to the pandemic.

The Vatican is also under enormous economic pressure in years of financial scandal, the most recent example of which is a $ 225 million land deal in London in which a former Harrod's warehouse originally slated for conversion into luxury apartments is been purchased by the Vatican Secretariat of State. on the funds of “Peter's Pence”, an annual collection intended to support the works of the pope.

Francis has taken several steps to clean the house since Italy's spring shutdown began:

In March, the Vatican announced the creation of a new Human Resources section called "Directorate General for Personnel" within the general affairs section of the Secretariat of State, responsible for the internal ecclesiastical government, describing the new office as "a major step forward. importance in the reform process initiated by Pope Francis “. Just a day later the Vatican returned that announcement, saying the new section was simply a "proposal" by officials within the Council for the Economy and members of the Pope's Council of Cardinals, indicating that while it was identified a real necessity, internal struggles could still impede progress.
In April, Pope Francis appointed Italian banker and economist Giuseppe Schlitzer as the new director of the Vatican's Financial Intelligence Authority, its financial supervisory unit, following the abrupt departure last November of Swiss anti-money laundering expert René Brülhart.
On May 1, which marks the Italian celebration of Labor Day, the pope fired five Vatican employees believed to be involved in the controversial Secretariat of State purchase of the London property, which took place in two phases between 2013 and 2018.
Also at the beginning of May, the pope called a meeting of all heads of department to discuss the financial situation of the Vatican and possible reforms, with a detailed report by the Jesuit father Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, appointed by Francis last November prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy.
In mid-May, Pope Francis closed nine holding companies based in the Swiss cities of Lausanne, Geneva and Friborg, all set up to manage portions of the Vatican's investment portfolio and its land and real estate properties.
Around the same time, the Pope transferred the Vatican's "Data Processing Center," which is essentially its financial monitoring service, from the Asset Administration of the Apostolic See (APSA) to the Secretariat for the Economics, in order to create a stronger distinction between administration and control.
On June 1, Pope Francis issued a new procurement law that applies to both the Roman Curia, which means the governing bureaucracy of the Vatican, and to the Vatican City State. Among other things, the law prevents conflicts of interest, imposes competitive bidding procedures, requires proof that contract costs are financially sustainable, and centralizes procurement control.
Shortly after the new law was issued, the pope appointed the Italian layman Fabio Gasperini, a former banking expert for Ernst and Young, as the new number two official of APSA, effectively the Vatican's central bank.
On August 18, the Vatican issued an order from the President of the Governorate of the Vatican City State, Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, requiring voluntary organizations and legal entities of the Vatican City State to report suspicious activities to the financial control of the Vatican, the Financial Reporting Authority (AIF). Subsequently, at the beginning of December, Francis issued new statutes that transform AIF into a supervisory and financial information authority (ASIF), confirming its supervisory role for the so-called Vatican bank and expanding its responsibilities.
On September 24, Pope Francis ousted his former head of cabinet, Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who resigned not only as head of the Vatican's office for saints, but also from the "rights connected with being a cardinal" on Pope's request on the accusations. of embezzlement. Becciu had previously served as a deputy, or "substitute," in the Secretariat of State from 2011 to 2018, a position traditionally likened to the chief of staff of a US president. In addition to the embezzlement allegations, Becciu had also been linked to the London real estate deal, brokered in 2014 during his time as a substitute, leading many to think he was the ultimate culprit. Becciu's removal has been interpreted by many as a punishment for financial wrongdoing and a sign that such maneuvers will not be tolerated.
On 4 October, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis published his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, dedicated to the theme of human fraternity and in which he supports a complete restructuring of politics and civil discourse in order to create priority systems for the community and poor, rather than individual or market interests.
On October 5, a few days after Becciu's resignation, the Vatican announced the creation of a new "Commission for Confidential Matters" which determines which economic activities remain confidential, appointing allies such as Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the laity, the Family and Life, as president, and Archbishop Filippo Iannone, president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, as secretary. The same commission, which covers contracts for the purchase of goods, properties and services for both the Roman Curia and Vatican City State offices, was part of the new transparency laws issued by the pope in June.
On October 8, three days after the commission was created, Pope Francis met at the Vatican with representatives of Moneyval, the anti-money laundering supervisory body of the Council of Europe, which at the time was conducting its annual review of the Vatican after a a year of money-related scandals, including Brülhart's ouster in November 2019. In his speech, the pope condemned a neoliberal economy and the idolatry of money and outlined the steps the Vatican has taken to clean up its finances. The results of this year's Moneyval report are expected to be released in early April, when Moneyval's plenary assembly is held in Brussels.
On December 8, the Vatican announced the creation of the "Council for Inclusive Capitalism with the Vatican", a partnership between the Holy See and some of the world's leading investment and business leaders, including the CEOs of Bank of America, British Petroleum, Estée Lauder, Mastercard and Visa, Johnson and Johnson, Allianz, Dupont, TIAA, Merck and Co., Ernst and Young and Saudi Aramco. The goal is to harness private sector resources to support goals such as ending poverty, protecting the environment and promoting equal opportunities. The group placed itself under the moral guidance of Pope Francis and Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, head of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. Pope Francis met with the group during an audience at the Vatican in November 2019.
On December 15, the Pope's Council for the Economy convened an online meeting to discuss not only the 2020 deficit, which is expected to exceed $ 60 million due to both coronavirus-related shortages and the looming crisis of non-retirement pension obligations. financed.
In his annual address to the Curia on December 21, Pope Francis, without going into specifics, said that moments of scandal and crisis in the Church should be an opportunity for renewal and conversion, rather than throwing the Church into further conflict.

This process of renewal and conversion does not mean trying to dress an old institution in new clothes, he argued, saying, "We must stop seeing Church reform as putting a patch on an old garment, or simply drafting a new Apostolic Constitution."

True reform, therefore, consists in preserving the traditions the Church already possesses, while also being open to new aspects of the truth that it has yet to understand, he said.

Trying to inspire a new mentality, a new mentality, in an old institution has been at the center of Francis' reform efforts from the beginning. This effort can also be seen in the steps it has taken this year to bring the Vatican up to date with modern international standards for a clean and transparent financial system.