Pope Francis has approved new Vatican rules to make sainthood Causes more financially transparent. Under the new regulations, which have been approved for a three-year trial period, promoters of Causes may have the option of appealing to the Vatican for help with funding. “In cases in which there are real difficulties to sustain the cost of a Cause in the Roman phase, the promoters may ask the Congregation for the Causes of Saints for a contribution through the local bishop,” the regulations state. The rules also say that the congregation will have to take disciplinary action if there is “failure or administrative - financial abuses by those participating in the development of the Cause”. The new regulations outline procedures for handling contributions received and specifies which authorities are charged with overseeing the flow of money for a Cause. While the postulator or promoter of a Cause can continue to administer the funds for each one, the bishop of the diocese, the superior general of the religious order that initiates the Cause or another Church authority must review financial statements and approve the budgets. The reform comes after the leak of documents allegedly written by a commission studying the financial activity of Vatican offices, which concluded that there was “insufficient oversight of the cash-flow for canonisations”. The Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, one of two journalists standing trial at the Vatican, has claimed that the average cost of a Cause is about €500,000, or £380,000.