(Unexpected) change at the top of Vatican finances. Father Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, a Spanish Jesuit, “renounces” the position of Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, the department born from the Vatican finance reform in 2014 on which the budget, planning and control functions are concentrated. The Pope has appointed Guerrero’s “deputy”, the manager Maximino Caballero Ledo, current Secretary of the Secretariat, to lead the dicastery: he is the second layman to take over the leadership of a ministry of the Holy See after Paolo Ruffini, long-time Prefect for Communications . An appointment in continuity, therefore, given that it was Guerrero himself who suggested to the Pope the appointment of Caballero Ledo, his youth companion in the city of Merida. Guerrero’s resignation is for “personal reasons” in particular health after undergoing surgery “which produces some secondary effects that make it particularly difficult for me to carry out a task as demanding as the one I am carrying out”.
Bergoglio’s thanks: he fixed the economy
The Pope – reports the Press Office of the Holy See – sincerely thanks Father Guerrero «for the dedication shown in his service to the Holy See. Father Guerrero managed to put the economy right, it was hard and demanding work that bore so much fruit. The Holy Father assures him of his prayers.’ The Secretariat, born in 2014, after a controversial period of management by Cardinal George Pell – completely cleared of allegations of sexual harassment in Australia, for which he had left office – in recent years has contributed to giving a stable financial structure Vatican, with powers well divided (and shared) with the Apsa, the dicastery of patrimony led by Nunzio Galantino. Many innovations have been introduced, such as the procurement code, the management of “reserved matters”, the new code for financial investments, the start of the centralization of all the financial resources of the Holy See – quantified at around 2 billion – in the ‘Apsa (and entrusted to the IOR for management). Guerrero faced the difficult Covid period with fiscal difficulties, which were managed with targeted budget savings and better investments.
Letter to employees: still a lot of work to do
In the letter to his employees, Guerrero retraces the journey made in these three years, explaining that he is leaving “with sadness, but also with immense gratitude to the Lord, to the Holy Father and to all of you and with the satisfaction that together we have made a contribution to the requested economic reform” by Pope Francis. “Together, and in collaboration with other curial institutions – writes the outgoing Prefect of the Spe – we have helped the Holy Father to take important steps in the economic organization of the Roman Curia, in transparency, in the credibility of the Holy See as regards economic questions . We have helped to have clearer rules, but there are still many things to do in the pipeline: centralization of investments, further regulation and simplification of procurement processes, to make them more transparent and streamlined; the implementation of the Human Resources Directorate, which is a new challenge to improve working conditions and climate in the Holy See; the planning of a greater use of computerized procedures».
The new prefect: a Spanish financial manager
The new prefect Caballero, after graduating in Economics and mastering Business Administration, worked for twenty years between Barcelona and Valencia, as head of finance in various European countries, the Middle East and Africa. In 2007 he moved with his family to the United States, where he lived until his appointment to the Vatican. While in the United States, Caballero held various Finance positions at Baxter Healthcare Inc., a publicly held healthcare company based in Deerfield, Illinois, a global medical products and services company with a portfolio of products for intensive care, nutrition, renal care, hospitals and surgery. He has served as Vice President of Finance for Latin America, Vice President of International Finance and Vice President of US Finance, as well as being a global project leader at the same firm.