Pope Orders Vatican Officials to Shrink Ballooning Budget Deficit

Pope Orders Vatican Officials to Shrink Ballooning Budget Deficit . Pope Francis struggles with mission to fix finances at Holy See

Pope Francis ordered Vatican officials to close a widening budget deficit at the Holy See and stop poorly managed spending and investments from undermining the operations of the Catholic Church’s global headquarters. The Holy See’s deficit doubled in 2018 to roughly €70 million ($76.7 million) on a budget of about €300 million, reflecting persistent inefficiencies and hits to investment income, according to senior Vatican officials. The gap is a measure of how the pope has fallen short of his mandate when elected six years ago to overhaul the Vatican’s management and finances. The Vatican also remains without a finance chief more than two years after the last one, Cardinal George Pell, left to face sex-abuse charges in Australia.