The Secretariat of State will also carry out its operations through an approved budget incorporated into the overall budget of the Holy See, Pope Francis said. The one exception will be those confidential operations which concern the sovereignty of the city state, and which can be carried out only with the approval of the "Commission for Reserved Matters," formed last month.
At a Nov. 4 meeting with Pope Francis, a commission was formed to oversee the transfer of financial administration from the Secretariat of State to APSA.
The "Commission for Passage and Control," according to Bruni, is composed of the "sostituto" of the Secretariat of State Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, APSA president Bishop Nunzio Galantino, and the Secretariat for the Economy's prefect, Fr. Juan A. Guerrero, S.J.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Fernando Vérgez, secretary general of the Governorate of Vatican City State, also participated in the Nov. 4 meeting.
In his letter to Parolin, the pope wrote that in his reform of the Roman Curia he had been "reflecting and praying" about an opportunity to give a "better organization" to the economic and financial activities of the Vatican, so that they will be "more evangelical, transparent and efficient."
"The Secretariat of State is without a shadow of a doubt, the dicastery which sustains more closely and directly the action of the Holy Father in his mission, representing an essential point of reference of the life of the Curia and of the dicasteries which make a part of it," Francis said.
"It does not seem, however, necessary, nor opportune, that the Secretariat of State should perform all of the functions which are already attributed to other dicasteries," he continued.
"It is preferable, therefore, that even in economic and financial matters the principle of subsidiarity is implemented, without prejudice to the specific role of the Secretariat of State and the indispensable task it carries out."
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.