Two Vatican Officials Sign Agreement to Cooperate on Fighting Corruption

“The fight against corruption,” Guerrero said, “in addition to representing a moral obligation and an act of justice, also allows us to fight waste in such a difficult time due to the economic consequences of the pandemic, which affects the whole world and affects the weakest in particular, as Pope Francis has repeatedly reminded.”

The Secretariat for the Economy has the task of overseeing the Vatican’s administrative and financial structures and activities. The Office of Auditor General oversees an annual financial assessment of each dicastery of the Roman Curia. The statutes of the auditor general’s office describe it as the “Vatican anti-corruption body.”

A Vatican representative addressed the subject of corruption at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Sept. 10.

Archbishop Charles Balvo, head of the Holy See delegation to the OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum, denounced “the scourge of corruption” and called for “transparency and accountability” in financial governance.

Pope Francis himself acknowledged corruption in the Vatican during an inflight press conference last year. Speaking about Vatican financial scandals, he said that officials “have done things that do not seem ‘clean.’”

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The June law on contracts aimed to show that Pope Francis is serious about his frequently stated commitment to internal reform.

The new regulations also focus on controlling spending, as the Vatican faces a projected 30-80% reduction in income in the next fiscal year, according to an internal report.

At the same time, the Holy See is facing investigations by Vatican prosecutors, who are looking into suspicious financial transactions and investments at the Vatican Secretariat of State, which could trigger increased oversight by European banking regulators.

From Sept. 29, Moneyval, the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering watchdog, is due to conduct a two-week onsite inspection of the Holy See and Vatican City -- the first since 2012.

Carmelo Barbagallo, president of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority, has described the inspection as “especially important.”

“Its outcome may determine how the jurisdiction [of the Vatican] is perceived by the financial community,” he said in July.

Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.