Faced with the Vatican's infernal debt, will Leo XIV do better than Pope Francis?
Francis's election had raised hopes that the Argentine pope would manage to clean up the Holy See's finances. Despite his efforts, with a €2 billion hole at the end of his pontificate, the problem is far from being completely resolved, reports the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. And for the new pontiff, Leo XIV, financial issues, which are "trivial," remain "top of the pile."
In 2013, Benedict XVI resigned from his duties as Vicar of Christ on Earth and from his role as head of state of the Vatican, which was then in the midst of a financial crisis. The Papal State was accused by Moneyval, the European Union's anti-economic crime authority, of not sufficiently combating money laundering. A month after the Bank of Italy's decision to block all electronic payment systems in the Holy See, not a single ATM was functioning.
In conclave, the conservative American cardinals supported the progressive Bergoglio. They hoped that this energetic and radical Jesuit, who, like them, hailed from the American continent, would have the strength and determination to put an end to the excesses that the austere Ratzinger had failed to see or been able to confront.
Pope Francis has attempted to clean up the Vatican's finances, notably by imposing greater transparency, but the Curia's reluctance and his own hesitations have left this work unfinished.
Alongside this financial debt, which has been partially stemmed, other deficits have emerged: in particular, the Vatican pension fund, a chasm that reaches 2 billion euros.
The files
Courrier International
