In a meeting with the Vatican’s Office of the Auditor General yesterday, Pope Francis urged staff to fight the “insidiousness of corruption” in the Holy See and Vatican City State. Source: Vatican News.
The office, which he himself established nine years ago, serves as the anti-corruption authority of the Holy See and Vatican City State, and carries out financial audits of entities belonging to them.
In his address to staff, Pope Francis stressed the importance of eliminating corruption in the Vatican.
As he is recovering from bronchitis, Pope Francis did not read his prepared speech but instead handed it over to be read afterwards.
“Those who work at the Holy See and the Vatican City State certainly do so faithfully and honestly,” the Pope said, “but the lure of corruption is so dangerous that we must be extremely vigilant.
“I know you dedicate much time to this,” the Pope added, stressing the need to balance “absolute transparency in every action” with “merciful discretion”, since scandals “serve more to fill the pages of the newspapers than to correct behaviour in depth.”
“in addition to this,” the Pope concludes, “I invite you to help those responsible for the administration of the Holy See’s assets to create safeguards that can prevent, ‘upstream’, the insidiousness of corruption from materialising.”
The Pope said three of the audit office’s core characteristics: independence, attention to international principles, and professionalism.
The office is truly independent, the Pope says, because it “does not depend hierarchically on other entities.”
“Far from implying any arbitrariness,” he said, this independence should lead to “action that is always well thought-out and inspired by the highest principle of charity.”
FULL STORY
Pope: ‘Extreme vigilance’ needed in fight against Vatican corruption (By Joseph Tulloch, Vatican News)
