Pope Francis Strips Powerful Vatican Office of Its Financial Assets

Source: New York Times

Pope Francis has stripped the Vatican’s most powerful office of its significant financial assets, the Vatican said Monday, after dubious investments squandered millions of euros in church donations, sparking an embarrassing scandal and prompting an ongoing corruption investigation.

A new law enacted by the pope orders the secretariat of state, the diplomatic and administrative arm of the Holy See, to transfer all its financial holdings and real estate assets to another office, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, which administers the Vatican’s finances, by Feb. 4.

The changes, included in a law made public Monday, follow a Vatican investigation into the mismanagement of funds at the secretariat of state.

One of the most prominent investments made by the secretariat of state involved the purchase of a London property that was bought in part with money donated by the faithful.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/world/europe/pope-francis-vatican-finances.html

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Pope Francis confers with Vatican Secretary of State cardinal Pietro Parolin.

The powerful Secretariat of State - whose leader is often referred to a "deputy pope" - will be under investigation for alleged mismanagement of billions in investment funds.