Pope cancels Holy See fundraising commission announced under questionable circumstances

ROME AP Pope Leo XIV has taken his biggest step yet to correct one of Pope Francis more problematic financial moves canceling a special Holy See fundraising commission that was broadcasted under questionable circumstances while Francis was hospitalized Leo on Thursday formally suppressed the fundraising commission abrogated its statutes and fired its members He decreed that its assets would go to the Holy See as a whole and that the Vatican patrimony office would oversee the commission s extinction A new working group would be formed with papally approved members to come up with fundraising proposals and an appropriate structure going forward the decree announced The decree was the latest sign that as comes to an end history s first American pope is wrapping up the loose ends of Francis pontificate Leo is correcting problems as needed and fulfilling Francis Holy Year obligations as he looks ahead to the new year when he can focus more on his own agenda Commission raised questions The Vatican had disclosed the creation of the commission its statutes and members on Feb while Francis was in the hospital battling double pneumonia At the time he was being visited by the top authorities of the Secretariat of State The commission included only Italians with no professional fundraising experience Its president was the assessor of the Secretariat of State the very same Vatican office that Francis had previously stripped of its ability to manage assets after it lost tens of millions of euros in a scandalous London property deal The concentration of financial power back in the Secretariat of State the lack of qualified fundraisers and absence of any Americans on the board U S Catholics and dioceses are the biggest donors to the Vatican straightaway raised questions about the commission s credibility To specific it smacked of the Italian-led Secretariat of State taking advantage of a sick pope to announce a new flow of unchecked donations into its coffers after Francis took its million-euro million sovereign wealth fund away and gave it to another office to manage as punishment for the London fiasco The decree by the American pope thus appears to be an effort to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch Donations are a crucial source of revenue to the Holy See and wealthy American donors in particular had been looking to Leo the American math major pope to impose greater financial transparency and accountability on the Vatican s books Financial situation looking up Leo s move comes on top of up-to-date good financial news from the Vatican s commercial sector ministry which last week communicated the Vatican s structural deficit had nearly been halved in from million euros million to million euros million The Holy See ended with a surplus of million euros million up from a deficit of million euros million the previous year according to the consolidated financial report External donations to the Holy See increased significantly after a long period of decline reaching million euros million up specific million euros million from the previous year the comment noted That extra revenue plus better performance at Vatican-run hospitals and the Vatican s commercial real estate boosted revenue by million euros million Personnel and administrative costs rose but the account attributed the rise mostly to increased spending for real estate maintenance Because of its cash crunch the Vatican has struggled for years to fund the necessary investments in its vast real estate portfolio to be able to command higher rents The Association of Lay Vatican Employees the closest thing the Holy See has to a labor union expressed skepticism at the assessment s positivity and petitioned for further information including about the status of the Holy See s pension fund which was so underfunded that Francis warned it required serious reforms to be able to meet its obligations Leo not losing sleep over finances Francis who was elected on a mandate to restructuring the Vatican s finances had made essential strides in cleaning up the Vatican s murky books imposing new accounting and transparency standards on the oftentimes reluctant Holy See bureaucracy during his -year pontificate Leo inherited the structural deficit and pension fund shortfall but says they re not nearly as bad as thought and that Francis had put in place the necessary starting blocks on which to build I m not saying we can relax and say the dilemma is over Leo described Crux in an interview over the summer I don t think the predicament is over I think we have to continue to work on this But I m not losing sleep over it and I think that it s fundamental that we communicate a different message