Pope Francis issued a new law transferring financial responsibilities away from the Vatican's Secretariat of State to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) one month ago. This shake up was first announced in an Aug. 25 letter to Cardinal Parolin that was made public on Nov. 5 after the Secretariat of State was engulfed in accusations of financial mismanagement, particularly regarding an investment in a London property.
The Vatican official said in the French interview that Pope Francis wanted to "directly face these problems which have arisen precisely to make the Roman Curia as transparent as possible, precisely so that she can … really exercise the service to which she is called … the service of the Gospel."
"You know very well that people today will not accept the Gospel except from a totally transparent Church," Parolin said, according to a transcript of the interview provided by KTO.
The cardinal said he believed that "considerable progress" had already been made in the pope's reform of the Roman Curia, particularly with regard to Vatican finances, pointing to the creation of the Council for the Economy, the Secretariat for the Economy, and the Office of the Revisor General.
He said that further reforms might entail the merger of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples with the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization and the combination of the Congregation for Catholic Education with the Pontifical Council for Culture.
"But these are minor actions compared to what has already been done," he said. "Now it is a question of giving homogeneity to all the reforms which have been made, by means of the new apostolic constitution which has for at least provisional title: 'Predicate Evangelii.'"