As the Holy Year approaches its conclusion, Pope Leo XIV has taken a decisive step toward strengthening financial transparency within the Holy See by formally dissolving a fundraising commission created during Pope Francis’ final months. The move signals Leo’s intention to address unresolved financial concerns while preparing new structures better aligned with his administration’s priorities.
According to AP News, Pope Leo “formally suppressed the fundraising commission, abrogated its statutes and fired its members,” placing its remaining assets under the oversight of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA). A new working group, appointed directly by the pope, will now be tasked with recommending fundraising models and organizational structures suitable for the future.
The original commission had raised immediate questions when it was announced on February 26, during Pope Francis’ hospitalization for double pneumonia. According to AP News, the announcement came at a time when Francis “was being visited by the top officials of the Secretariat of State,” the same office that had previously lost control of Vatican asset management following the widely publicized London property scandal.
Concerns deepened when observers noted the commission’s unusual composition. AP News reported that its members were “only Italians with no professional fundraising experience,” and that its president was the assessor of the Secretariat of State — the very office from which Francis had removed financial management authority after it “lost tens of millions of euros in a scandalous London property deal.” The absence of any American members, despite the United States being the Vatican’s largest donor base, drew further scrutiny.
To many, the structure of the commission appeared to concentrate financial influence back into the Secretariat of State under questionable circumstances. AP News noted that critics feared it resembled an attempt by the office “to announce a new flow of unchecked donations into its coffers” at a moment when Pope Francis was gravely ill, and after it had already been stripped of oversight of its 600 million-euro sovereign fund.
Pope Leo XIV’s decree effectively resets that situation, signaling a new beginning. According to AP News, the American pope’s action “appears to be an effort to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch,” especially as wealthy U.S. Catholics had been looking to him “to impose greater financial transparency and accountability on the Vatican’s books.”
For Catholic donors and institutions around the world, the pope’s decision highlights his commitment to responsible stewardship — a core element of Catholic social teaching. As the Church prepares for the next chapter of his pontificate, the restructuring of Vatican fundraising may lay the groundwork for renewed trust and clearer financial governance in service of the Gospel.
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