Card. Bertone: Commitment to transparency in management of Holy See’s assets
(Vatican Radio) Assets managed by Vatican entities are “at the service of the universal
mission of the Church” and today, in particular, “there must be an increasing commitment
to transparency and accuracy in their administration”. These were the two main themes
reiterated Tuesday morning by Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone,
in his speech at the presentation of the new Regulations governing the Prefecture
for Economic Affairs of the Holy See. Emer McCarthy reports Listen:
During
his reform of the Roman Curia, Paul VI first established the office responsible for
the management of the Economic Affairs of the Holy See. This office had to fulfil
specific tasks: knowledge, control, supervision and coordination "of all the Holy
See’s most important investments and business transactions”. Pope Paul VI wanted
to modernize all activities with the fundamental objective of ensuring an essential
aspect of its very existence for the Church, that of "self-sufficiency". Moreover,
said Cardinal Bertone, the Church has "always sought to consider the mere instrumentality
of temporal goods in relation to the carrying out of its mission," that being "the
worship of God, the works of the apostolate and of charity, adequate support of the
clergy and other ministers. "The Code of Canon Law - said the Secretary of State
- states that for the achievement of its "institutional purposes" it is permissible
for the Church to “acquire, possess, sell and administrate temporal goods".
However,
continued the Secretary of State, "the Church, as such, has no assets: it possesses
them through institutions that compose it" and therefore this explains the central
role played by a body such as the Prefecture for Economic Affairs. In the recent past,
noted Cardinal Bertone, practice had somehow reduced the tasks originally meant for
the Prefecture, transforming it into "a sort of central accounting house of the Holy
See" and blurring its duty to assume the tasks of "general economic planning and coordination".
However, with the new Regulations, he added, "it is returning to its original spirit",
according to which - the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs places itself as a higher
body over the single Vatican administrations, with a direct link to the Secretary
of State, with which it must agree on "orientation and programming."
Cardinal
Bertone noted that the new Regulations, issued in February, came to light at a time
when the Holy See had decided to adapt itself “to the international standards of financial
control". As a result, he continued, "the necessary transparency in the economic
and financial activities of the Holy See and Vatican City State requires an increasingly
incisive and unified commitment to correctness on the part of the individual Administrations
in the management of their heritage and economic activities".
Finally, Cardinal
Bertone made reference to the crisis that has hit the world, saying that "the Holy
See", must proceed in "the gradual, but effective, reduction of costs in the face
of a continuing inability to increase revenues at least in proportion to the deficits
as recently recorded in the consolidated balances. " "It is most necessary - he concluded
- that we all become more aware of the need to support not only the mission of the
Church and the Holy See, but also its credibility."