Two close aides of Pope Francis I said on Tuesday that the Vatican's financial situation was in no danger, denying a recent book by an Italian investigative journalist.
"There is no bankruptcy or default here," Bishop Nunzio Galantino, the head of the Vatican's central bank, told Avineri. "There's just a need to review spending."
Avineri is a spokeswoman for the Italian Conference of Bishops. The interview was also published on the Vatican's official website, the Vatican News.
Journalist Gianluigi Notici has published five books based on leaked Vatican documents. The most recent, Giudizio Universale, was published in Italy on Monday.
The Pope received an internal report in May 2018 indicating that "the deficit of the Vatican has reached alarming levels and is liable to bankruptcy," the book says.
The Vatican central bank «the administration of endowments of the Holy See» - has secret accounts, and recorded a deficit for the first time in its history in 2018.
Bishop Galantino said the deficit was due to one-time expenses to prevent the closure of the Vatican Hospital, and denied there were secret accounts.
The bishop warned against "fictional" reports, much like the Da Vinci Code, and rejected suggestions that the Vatican's old guard was blocking Pope Francis' reform efforts.
Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, an ally of Pope Francis who heads a commission looking into reforming the Vatican's central administration, also dismissed Notsi's allegations.
"In the Vatican, we still have a problem: someone is leaking documents to shake (the papacy)," he told La Repubblica.