Pope Francis named Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, as a member of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See or APSA.
APSA, which is in Italian Amministrazione del Patrimonio della Sede Apostolica, acts as the Treasury and central bank of Vatican City and the Holy See.
It is the office that deals with the “provisions owned by the Holy See in order to provide the funds necessary for the Roman Curia to function.”
Currently headed by Italian Bishop Nunzio Galantino, the office also administers payroll and operating expenses for Vatican City.
APSA has around a hundred employees and collaborators, and a commission of eight cardinals who work alongside the president.
Pope Francis has recently brought under the control of APSA the financial investments and real estate holdings owned by the Secretariat of State — the central administration of the Vatican.
Cardinal Tagle has been in the Vatican since February 2020 when he formally assumed his post as head of Propaganda Fide.
In May 2020, the pontiff elevated him to the order of “cardinal bishops,” the highest rank within the College of Cardinals.
It is from the ranks of cardinal bishops that the Dean of Cardinals is elected. The dean presides at the conclave in case of “sede vacante,” a period when there is no pope.
In July 2020, he was also named member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
At present, Tagle has been serving his second and last term as president of Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of Catholic charities around the world.
Pope Paul VI established APSA as part of his broader reform of the Roman Curia in the apostolic constitution “Regimini Ecclesiae universae” issued on August 15, 1967.
APSA was composed originally of two sections: the “Ordinary Section” and the “Extraordinary Section.”
The “Ordinary Section” continued the work of the Administration of the Property of the Holy See, a commission that Pope Leo XIII set up in 1880, initially as an advisory body, and to which in 1891 he gave direct responsibility for administering the property remaining to the Holy See after the complete loss of the Papal States in 1870.
The “Extraordinary Section” administers the funds given by the Italian government to implement the Financial Convention attached to the Lateran Treaty of 1929.
After the Second World War, the International Monetary Fund recognized the Administration of the Property of the Holy See, as the central bank of Vatican City.
On July 9, 2014, the “Ordinary Section” of APSA was transferred to the Secretariat for the Economy while the “Extraordinary Section” remained within the purview of APSA.
Since then APSA focuses exclusively on its role as a Treasury for the Holy See and the Vatican City State.
Also appointed member of APSA with Cardinal Tagle is Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
