Vatican departments had more than a billion euros that were not declared on an overall balance sheet before new accounting standards kicked in last year, a financial statement has showed.
The man appointed to clean up Vatican finances said last December that departments had "tucked away" million of euros and followed "long-established patterns" in jealously managing their affairs without reporting to any central accounting office.
funds
Yesterday's statement, issued after a meeting of the Vatican's Council for the Economy, showed that such funds totalled about €1.1bn, the first time the Vatican has quantified the unreported funds discovered after Cardinal George Pell took up the newly-created post of economy minister.
Pell did not suggest any wrongdoing but said the departments had long had "an almost free hand" with their finances. The Vatican said at the time that Pell was not referring to any "illegal, illicit or badly administered funds".