Pope Francis approved detailed new plans to reform Vatican finances on Tuesday, giving the Australian cardinal leading the changes sweeping powers to monitor Vatican departments and ensure budgets conform to international accounting standards.
The statutes had been keenly awaited for signs of how much power would fall to Cardinal George Pell - an outsider Francis brought in to oversee often muddled finances and who, according to Italian media, is viewed sceptically by detractors in the Vatican bureaucracy who feel he has amassed too much power.
The changes were one of the clearest indications to date that Francis is committed to the mandate given him by cardinals who elected him in 2013 to clean up after a series of financial scandals.
Pell's Italian critics in the Vatican bureaucracy had asked the pope to name an additional committee of cardinals to oversee his department because they feared he was accumulating too much power, according to Italian media reports.
Last week Pell was in the news after a leading Italian magazine ran a report about a power struggle in the Vatican over the reforms and alleged excessive expenditure by his department.
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