C Pope Francis has issued a motu proprio, graduate Ibeni temporali, on certain competencies in subject economic and financial matters. This rule is one more step in a long chain of measures with which the Pontiff is carrying out the process of transparency and professionalization begun by Benedict XVI.

The reorganization of the Roman Curia at subject economic is a very valid opportunity to understand the nature of the Church from a missionary perspective.

The goods of the Church must be at the service of her proper ends: divine worship, the worthy support of the clergy, the apostolate and works of charity, especially for the needy (cf. can. 1254 § 2 CIC). The Church does not feel that she is the owner of resources. It must administer them in order to give life and continuity to the will of the donors.

In order to preserve the dedication of the goods to their purpose, it is necessary to arbitrate processes and mechanisms of guarantee. This was the reason for the insertion of three new bodies in the machinery of the Roman Curia: the committee for Economic Affairs, the administrative office for Economic Affairs and the Office of the Auditor General. Their fundamental mission statement is to oversee the administration of the goods that sustain the mission statement of the Holy See, at the service of the Roman Pontiff and the universal Church. The Pope created them with the motu proprio Fidelis dispensator et prudens (24-02-2014) and approved their statutes the following year.

In the framework of this reorganization, before the approval of the statutes, in July 2014, the Pope determined with another motu proprio the transfer of competencies from the ordinary section of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) to the then newly created administrative office for Economic Affairs. According to the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus (1988), it is the responsibility of the APSA, as an office of the Roman Curia, to administer the goods that are the property of the Holy See, destined to provide the necessary funds for the fulfillment of the functions of the Curia (cfr. art. 172).

The application internship of the principles of the reform and the integration of the abundant rules and regulations to which it has given rise, have made it advisable to publish this new motu proprio to delineate the areas of specific action of the new administrative office for Economic Affairs and APSA.

The fundamental goal pursued by the motu proprio is the clear and unequivocal separation of the management of the patrimony and the supervision of this administration. The APSA is responsible for the administration of the assets and the financial management , while the administrative office for economic affairs is entrusted with the supervision of this administration. To this end, this new rule establishes various mechanisms that already appeared in the approved statutes and deletes one article of the Statute of the administrative office, number 17, which could be misleading as to the competencies of the two entities.

To facilitate the resolution of practical and technical questions that may arise, the Pope has appointed a Delegate and has full confidence in attendance between his collaborators at the head of these bodies: Cardinals George Pell and Domenico Calcagno.

The reorganization of the Roman Curia at subject economic is not circumstantial. It does not respond to a mere bureaucratic adaptation to international standards in subject of recycling and money laundering, but to a firm decision of the Roman Pontiffs, not only of the last two, to help make the light of the Gospel transparent also in the Vatican financial sphere. Pontiffs, not just the last two, to help make the light of the Gospel transparent also in the Vatican financial sphere. This is attested to by the first words of the motu proprio Fidelis dispensator et prudens: "In particular, the economic and financial management of the Holy See is intimately related to its specific mission statement , not only at the service of the universal ministry of the Holy Father, but also of the common good, for the sake of the integral development of the human person". The Pope's latest motu proprio manifests his firm will to make the evangelizing mission statement a fundamental rule for every activity of the Church.