Vatican's flag trembled in front of Saint Peter's Basil, Photo: Shutterstock
Pope Leon annulled on Monday the exclusive authority of the Vatican Bank on the investments held by the Cetatea-Stat, reversing one of the financial reforms of his predecessor, Francis, reports Reuters.
In a short decree, Leon said that the Vatican Bank, officially known as the Institute for Religious Works, will no longer control all the investments made by the Vatican departments, as Francisc had ordered in 2022.
The decision gives the Vatican departments the freedom to use foreign banks.
Leon canceled Francis's previous order, but said that departments should continue to use the Vatican bank “unless the competent bodies (…) consider more efficient or more convenient to resort to financial intermediaries established in other states.”
The Vatican's financial reputation has been stained in the last decades by the lack of transparency and cases of corruption, hijacking of funds and other crimes. Francis, who led the Catholic Church for 12 years until his death on April 21 this year, initiated a series of reforms to remedy these issues.
Leon's decree revokes only one of these reforms – the one that required all investments to be managed by the Vatican Bank.
Some officials have complained since 2022 that Francisc's measure had offered the bank too much power over the other Vatican departments, which could not even have investments in banks in Italy.
The new decree requires that the Vatican departments continue to respect the Vatican investment policies, drafted by a surveillance committee created by Francis in 2022.
Vatican's financial disaster that Pope Francis could not solve
