Gloria.TV News on the 26th of February 2014

His New Job: Cardinal George Pell has explained to the media his role as the prefect of the new Secretary of Economy, the de facto Vatican finance ministry. The Secretary will review every three months the spending in all Vatican entities. At the same time there will be more financial autonomy. Today, in order to buy a memo pad the Vatican entities have to fill out different forms.

Excellent Credentials: The Sydney Morning Herald quotes the vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, Professor Greg Craven: “If you look at Sydney now, Pell has got two Catholic universities operating, he's got two seminaries operating, you've got Catholic Healthcare humming, you've got enrolments in Catholic schools at record levels. If you were doing a corporate health check on this, you'd be saying the CEO is doing a pretty good job.''

Expensive Reform: The Italian website korazym.it writes that the global consulting firm Promontory Financial Group will cost the Vatican not less then 10 million Euros – almost 14 million dollars. Promontory was recruited by Pope Francis to carry out a comprehensive investigation of all customer contacts of the Vatican Bank. The Vatican has engaged another three consulting firms.

Prosperity Preachers: Dale Coulter has commented on firstthings.com Pope Francis’ video address to Texas Pentecostals around self-proclaimed bishop Tony Palmer. Coulter says about those who were dismayed about the video. Quote: “They wonder what ecclesial status Tony Palmer—a longtime friend of the Pope’s who arranged the meeting—has, why the pope of the poor chose a prosperity-preaching Word of Faith group out of all the possible choices, and what the future implications might be.” Coulter counts himself among those who hold out the possibility that this may yet produce some positive fruit – quote – “while I sympathize with those who remain troubled.”