It seems counterintuitive, but every time you hear about a financial scandal in the Vatican, that is good news, not bad. It is good news because it shows — to quote the Vatican’s financial watchdog — that the regulatory system is working.

For too long, the church has been racked by financial mismanagement. Now, some will say the basic problem is that clerics shouldn’t be put in charge of finances. Because their training is in theology, they lack either the training or the interest in finances to develop the expertise necessary to run multimillion-dollar, multinational organizations and are too easily compromised by incompetent but devout lay advisers or duped by those with nefarious intent.

Read more at National Catholic Reporter.