Pope Francis called on the world's Catholic cardinals, many of whom live in Rome and lead Vatican offices, to pursue a "zero deficit" agenda to improve the Vatican's use of its economic assets. The pontiff did not offer many specifics in a letter published by the Vatican on Friday,

Pope Francis arrived in the tiny Southeast Asian nation of East Timor on Monday for the penultimate stop on his marathon trip through Asia and the South Pacific.

Pope Francis told Roman Catholic cardinals they need to cut unnecessary spending to reach the Vatican’s zero-deficit target set in the wake of a series of financial scandals.

Pope Francis has written to the College of Cardinals of the Catholic Church calling on them to step up efforts to cut costs as part of the reform of the Roman Curia launched a decade ago. "The past years have shown that the requests for reform,