VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Leo XIV has ordered the immediate suppression of the fundraising commission established by Pope Francis only ten months ago.

On Thursday, December 4, the Holy See published the chirograph with which Pope Leo — after consultations with various experts in the field — abolished the Commission for Donations to the Holy See, created by Pope Francis on February 11. The chirograph abrogates the statute and all related acts, orders the immediate cessation of its members, and transfers all of the body’s assets to the Holy See through the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, with the aim of reshaping the institutional structure of Vatican fundraising.

“The Council for the Economy has formulated certain recommendations aimed at remodulating the current institutional structure entrusted with managing the sector,” the chirograph states.

Publication of the official document — signed on September 29 but only released on December 4 — comes less than ten months after the commission’s creation. The body had been announced on February 26 while Pope Francis was hospitalized at the Gemelli Polyclinic. The commission was composed of five members and was presided over by Bishop Roberto Campisi, formerly assessor for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State and later appointed by Leo XIV as the Holy See’s permanent observer to UNESCO on September 27. Some analysts, such as Vatican watcher Francesco Capozza in the Italian daily Il Tempo, interpreted this promotion as a removal.

The chirograph — a document handwritten by the Pontiff — stipulates that the members “immediately cease from their office” and that “all assets currently belonging to the Commission must be assigned to the Holy See.” For this purpose, the Pope delegated the president of APSA, Archbishop Giordano Piccinotti, with authority to subdelegate and to liquidate the body “in accordance with current regulations.”

The text adds that the Secretariat for the Economy, together with an appointed working group, will “resolve any issues that may remain pending” following the commission’s dissolution, keeping the Council for the Economy informed of every step taken.

The Pope further ordered the establishment of an additional working group tasked with formulating new proposals for the general organization of the Holy See’s fundraising and defining a stable and appropriate structure. The members of this body will be proposed by the Council for the Economy and submitted to the Holy Father through the Secretariat of State.

In the chirograph, Leo XIV emphasizes that the issue of donations constitutes an essential aspect of the “bond of unity and charity” between the particular churches and the Roman Pontiff, with a direct impact on the concrete exercise of the Petrine ministry. For this reason the Pope approved the recommendations he received, ordering that the document be promulgated and immediately take effect.

The Commission for Donations to the Holy See had been established by Pope Francis for the purpose of encouraging contributions from the faithful, bishops’ conferences, and other potential international benefactors by coordinating dedicated campaigns. The statute was approved experimentally for three years.

The speed with which Pope Leo decided to suppress the body — only months after its creation — and the immediacy of the measures laid out in the chirograph appear to highlight the seriousness of the institutional imbalances generated by the commission’s brief existence.

The act is part of a broader process of reorganizing the canonical and administrative framework of the Holy See that Leo XIV has undertaken since the beginning of his pontificate.

The Pope, a canon lawyer by training, had already been compelled to intervene to resolve two serious issues inherited from the previous pontificate: on the one hand, the problem of the monopoly on investments concentrated in the IOR; on the other, the legislative vacuum affecting the Governatorate of Vatican City State, entrusted to Sister Raffaella Petrini, who obviously did not possess the cardinal rank required by the fundamental law reformed by Francis, even though he had appointed her governor.

The suppression of the commission therefore represents a further intervention aimed at restoring normative coherence, clarity of competencies, and transparency in the management of the Holy See’s assets.

With the reorganization now underway, the Holy See is preparing to redesign its fundraising strategy, focusing on a more stable and verifiable model, in accordance with the criteria of prudence and efficiency indicated by Praedicate Evangelium, the apostolic constitution governing the structure of the Roman Curia, while awaiting the new operational proposals entrusted to the working group that will be established in the coming months.