When errors or suspicions arise in the financial accounting of Vatican offices, the staff of the Auditor General’s Office must act with “the spirit of fraternal correction,” Pope Francis said.
While the auditors must strive to uphold the highest professional standards, when they need to flag irregular or erroneous accounting and administrative practices, they must do so “inspired by the supreme principle of charity,” the pope said in a text he handed to a dozen staff members during a meeting on 11th December in the library of the Apostolic Palace.
Pope Francis quoted Proverbs 3:12: “For whom the Lord loves he reproves, as a father, the son he favours.” The pope wrote that “those who work at the Holy See and the Vatican City State do so faithfully and honestly, but the lure of corruption is so dangerous that we must be very vigilant.”
The anti-corruption work, he said, must be done with “firmness and merciful discretion because, without prejudice to the need for absolute transparency in every action, scandals serve more to fill the pages of the newspapers than to correct behavior in depth.”
Picture: Pope Francis gives his blessing to members of the staff of the Vatican Auditor General’s Office at the end of a meeting in the library of the Apostolic Palace, 11th December 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)