Because of “years of old-fashioned methodology, incompetence, and corruption,” the Vatican “is short of money,” said Cardinal George Pell, former Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy (2014-19). “That’s the primary reality at the moment.”

“We’re overspending every year for the last 10 years at least,” he added, as he spoke of “elements [at the Secretariat of State who] were hostile to any outside light on their activities.”