This is copied from Silere non possum based in Rome:
Pope Leo XIV unmasks Campisi’s manoeuvres: donations commission axed
Vatican City – If anyone still had doubts that Leo XIV has no intention of allowing himself to be used, they can now lay them completely to rest. The signing of this act in fact brings to completion the appointment of 27 September 2025: the date is anything but casual. Made public today, it is a chirograph dated 29 September 2025, entitled “Vinculum unitatis et caritatis”. With this act – of crucial importance for understanding the internal dynamics of the Secretariat of State in the Francis years – Leo XIV has suppressed the Commissio de donationibus pro Sancta Sede, established “by Pope Francis” only a few months ago, and has placed in the hands of the Council for the Economy and the Secretariat for the Economy the overall redesign of the Holy See’s fundraising system.
The decision is striking because it brings to light, without any fear, the ploy put in place by Roberto Campisi while Pope Francis was confined to a hospital bed.
From Pope Francis to Leo XIV, via the economic bodies
The Commissio de donationibus pro Sancta Sede was a permanent commission tasked with promoting offerings for the Apostolic See, Peter’s Pence and the other institutional channels of contribution, also coordinating funds linked to can. 1271 of the Code of Canon Law. Alongside the Pope, two key actors of this new architecture emerged: the Council for the Economy, to which Praedicate Evangelium entrusts oversight of the administrative and financial structures and activities of the Holy See, and the Secretariat for the Economy, now called to manage the transition phase after the extinction of the Commission and to follow, with a working group, the outstanding issues. On the patrimonial front, the chirograph identified the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) as the body charged with winding up the Commission and assigning its assets to the Holy See.
Suppression of the Commissio and annulment of Statute and acts
With a blunt act, Leo XIV intervenes with clarity and orders the immediate suppression of the Commissio de donationibus pro Sancta Sede, established by Francis’ chirograph of 11 February 2025, drafted when the Pope was in hospital but backdated to shortly before his admission.
In concrete terms, Leo XIV provides for:
the suppression of the Commission as from the promulgation of the new chirograph, that is, from today;
the abrogation of the Statute approved by Pope Francis “ad experimentum for three years”, with a particularly clear provision: together with the Statute, “the acts adopted up to now and any regulations issued by the Commission shall no longer have any canonical or legal force”;
the immediate expiry of the mandates of all members;
the transfer to the Holy See of all assets registered in the name of the Commission, with APSA tasked with carrying out the liquidation in accordance with the regulations in force.
In effect, this amounts to a legal and operational reset of a body created less than a year ago, equipped with a detailed Statute, an initial endowment (300,000 euros contributed “pro quota” by APSA and the Governorate) and a defined mission: to encourage donations, to raise funds for projects of the Curia and the Governorate, to coordinate the other fundraising instruments, reporting directly to the Pope. The new chirograph opens by acknowledging that the issue of donations and fundraising is an “important aspect” of the vinculum unitatis et caritatis between the particular Churchesand the Apostolic See, “especially from the point of view of the effective exercise of the Petrine ministry.”
Leo XIV explains that the Council for the Economy has studied the issue anew, consulting experts, and has formulated recommendations “aimed at reshaping the current institutional structure” responsible for handling donations. The Pope states that he approves these recommendations and, on the basis of them, proceeds to suppress the Commission and to launch a new phase.
The act is fundamental because the Pope shifts the centre of gravity from the model of an autonomous commission, desired by Roberto Campisi to place his friends, and endowed with its own Statute, to a model that brings the coordination of fundraising back into the ordinary circuit of the central economic bodies (Council for the Economy, Secretariat for the Economy, APSA).
To set things straight…
To understand who, in these first months of the pontificate, is trying to manoeuvre Leo XIV, it is enough – not exhaustive, but enough – to look at those whom Campisi insisted on having in this Commission at all costs: himself, as President; Msgr Flavio Pace, Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, Member; Sister Alessandra Smerilli, Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Member; Sister Silvana Piro, Under-Secretary of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, Member; Giuseppe Puglisi-Alibrandi, Deputy Secretary General of the Governorate of the Vatican City State, Member.
In particular, Sister Alessandra Smerilli, a religious who boasts of having economic expertise but in reality does not possess the competence she suggests, has in recent months been trying to go around the Pope to obtain what she wants. As Silere non possum has explained, as soon as Leo was elected, numerous people began coming in and out of the Apostolic Palace, starting to “warn the Pope about others”, thereby seeking to appear as “friends” and “trusted” figures. Unfortunately, however, as often happens – and psychology confirms this – such people use the tactic of ascribing to others intentions that in reality are their own and, precisely through that behaviour, try in turn to circumvent the Pope. Leo listens, engages in dialogue, but has no intention of letting himself be used.
The transition phase: working groups and future structure
The chirograph leaves no operational vacuum. Leo XIV orders two steps which will nonetheless involve costs and time, confirming how certain choices made by people whom Francis wanted at all costs, but who were in fact acting for purposes very different from the good of the Church, are now producing repercussions on the entire system.
Management of outstanding matters: the Secretariat for the Economy, together with a working group appointed by it, is responsible for resolving “the issues that might remain pending as a result of the extinction of the Commissio”, keeping the Council for the Economy informed of all the actions taken.
Design of the new model: a working group will be set up to draw up proposals on “the overall question of fundraising for the Holy See” and to define an appropriate structure. The names of its members will be proposed by the Council for the Economy and submitted to the Pope through the Secretariat of State.
It must be underlined that the final provisions of the document “signed” by Francis – “The Commission, within three months of the publication of this Chirograph, shall issue a specific Implementing Regulation” – never even saw the light of day.
fr.M.F.
Silere non possum
1 comment:
Thank God we are moving on beyond the corrupt papacy of Francis!
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