Cardinal Pell’s departure was a great loss for financial reform in the Vatican. The task called for someone who couldn’t be bought or bullied, someone who wouldn’t be afraid to ask the awkward questions, wouldn’t stop until he was satisfied, someone who wasn’t unconcerned about being popular, someone who almost thrived on being hated - surely, if ever there was a man for the job!
Sadly, this has been a long-standing problem exacerbated by the byzantine nature of Vatican bureaucracy and cultural laxity and I’m not sure there’s an easy fix. It may well be something which the next Pope will need to make a priority and certainly addressing it will be easier once some of the old guard have moved on. Sometimes, sadly, the more thorny problems are the one’s best resolved over time.
