Pope Francis is not "letting go" of
the Institute of Religious Works (IOR) and is monitoring
personally the institution better known as the Vatican bank.
After wrapping up his demanding and fruitful visit to the
Holy Land, in fact, Bergoglio has plunged back into domestic
"affairs", first and foremost IOR which he has kept as a "bank"
while renewing its mission so it is more closely connected to
its specific objectives.
In particular, ANSA has learned, two high officials
recently appointed to their posts who were already working at
the bank when Angelo Caloia was president, have been sent into
early retirement.
Caloia's successors were Ettore Gotti Tedeschi and
currently Ernst Von Freyberg.
The early retirements made a big stir behind Vatican walls
because they were perceived as a new acceleration into the
institute's reform with the old IOR management being laid off
without much warning.
These steps were taken after work carried out by the
pontifical commission chaired by Raffaele Farina and the
pontiff's approval of a reform "proposal" drafted with the
cooperation of IOR's Freyberg and US-based international
consulting and auditing firm Promontory, which was hired as a
regulatory consultant.
The pope's objectives in making such progress are now
becoming clear: The Vatican bank must no longer create the
financial scandals that have cast a shadow on the Catholic
Church, as occurred in the cases of Monignor Nunzio Scarano, a
former head of analytic accounts at the Holy See's
asset-management agency APSA, which is indirectly linked to the
Vatican bank, and of the former bishop of Siena, Monsignor
Gaetano Bonicelli.
In order to reach this purpose, Bergoglio has encouraged
the significant outsourcing of financial management as a tool to
prevent the temptation for high- as well as low-ranking Vatican
officials to throw themselves into daring financial operations
whose outcome has at times cast a shadow on the whole
institution in the past.
IOR is thus changing: its structure is becoming
increasingly leaner, high-level tasks are being outsourced and a
new administrative and monitoring structure is being created.
The consulting firm Promontory is already operating in the
Vatican bank and is slated to be given increasingly more room as
its screening of the bank has led to the shutdown of "1,600"
accounts of holders who did not fit into any of the categories
of clients the bank is legally allowed to have, as explained by
the pontiff himself.
A fully operational and managerial role in Pope Francis'
IOR is also played by Monsignor Battista Ricca, who was
appointed to an office at the bank by the pontiff.
Newly appointed secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro
Parolin, moreover plays an increasingly important role in many
sectors starting with the Vatican bank.
Pope Francis strongly wants a transparent and crystal clear
IOR.
After all, the pope's determination can also be deduced
from the fact that he has not hesitated in reviewing the
positions of IOR account holders, in particular those of
clergymen, starting with his own chamberlains, ANSA has learned.
When the sums could not be clearly justified, the pope
allegedly encouraged their donation.
http://popefrancisnewsapp.com/
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA