Pope clips George Pell's wings

Vatican: Pope Francis has removed several administrative functions of the Vatican's key financial office from the finance department headed by his finance czar Cardinal George Pell thereby stripping him of a number of responsibilities.

In a new law on Saturday, Pope Francis basically reversed a 2014 law that had assigned the main operational section of the patrimony office to the Australian cardinal's Secretariat for the Economy.

Pope Francis, said he was reinstating these administrative functions to the APSA office because he realised there needed to be an "unequivocable and full separation" between those who manage Vatican assets (APSA) and those who supervise them (Pell).

Pell, who has been a critic of the Vatican's financial inefficiencies, had taken control in a bid to declare authority over different areas of the Vatican's finances which has been cut down by Pope Francis over time.