Pope Francis Moves Financial Records Office Under Secretariat for Economy

In 2016, however, the pope again gave APSA responsibility over the records office, with the motu proprio “I Beni Temporali,” citing the need for clear separation of the “direct management of the Holy See’s patrimony from the control and vigilance over the activity of management.”

“For this reason, it is of the utmost importance that the entities responsible for oversight be separate from those being overseen,” the pope said in the 2016 motu proprio.

In the May 20 rescript, signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, it says this newest change in the office’s management was made “considering the need to guarantee a more logical organization of the economic and financial information of the Holy See and to digitize the underlying models and procedures.”

This, the rescript continues, is to “guarantee the simplification of the activities and the effectiveness of the controls, as they are fundamental for the correct functioning of the Bodies of the Roman Curia.”

APSA, which operates like the Vatican’s central bank, oversees real estate holdings and other sovereign assets. The financial operations APSA carries out are recorded in the CED database, which includes the records of investments and financial transactions going back 50 years.

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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.