“St Peter has no bank account.” Of course the Vatican has and this is a bloody thorn in the side of Pope Francis. This seems to be for him and the Church a great challenge and as a Jesuit he typically stands on no ceremony to reach his end.
The Vatican Bank, or IOR, was founded by Pope Pius XII. Since then it has created only embarrassment and scandals for all the Popes, but at last Pope Francis has taken the bull by the horns. For him it is question of ‘to be or not to be’ and the future of this bank seems to be bleak.
It’s all a thorny question within the context of the reform of the Roman Curia, which seems to have been on top of the agenda of the frank discussions among the cardinals in the pre-Conclave meetings. Pope Francis affirmed that “there are in the Curia some holy and dedicated people, but others are not so motivated”. He even denounced “a gay lobby” in the Curia.
Pope Benedict, when still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was the first to denounce, during the ‘Via Crucis’ on Good Friday, that there was “a lot of dirt” in the Church. Alas, he left it under the carpet. Not so with Pope Francis, who wants to delve into the affairs of the Vatican Bank. He wants to open the closed box and the iron safes to see what is inside. It is for this reason that he spent his first 100 days talking to Vatican officials and appointing top commissions.
Pope Francis is one who listens with empathy or as the Italians say with his ‘terzo orecchio’ (third ear). He gets up early to spend some hours in prayer and in the spirit of ‘his father’ St Ignatius he makes a spiritual discernment of the problems he is facing. He is also running against time and is running ahead, often on his own steam. His first move was to appoint a Commission of eight cardinals, known as the Vatican G8 (though now he is adding a Patriarch from the Oriental Church), under the very able Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga. This cardinal recently commented: “They (Vatican officials) tell us that the IOR is not a bank, but a foundation. How is it that it works like a bank?”
How right he is, especially if one looks at the scandal-ridden history of the past decades starting in the early 1950s with Mgr Edoardo Cippico, then with Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, then with Roberto Calvi, the recent case of the removal of the Bishop of Trapani (in Sicily), and now the final straw is the Vatican chief accountant Mgr Nunzio Scarano accused of money laundering (transferring €500,000), who is now under arrest at Regina Coeli (Queen of Heaven prison) in Rome.
When things were becoming a little calm, out comes the story of Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, classed by The New York Times as ‘papabile’.
Through such a reform the Church will emerge more like Christ and purified from any evil
He is now accused of having transferred $75 million from the United Sates to the Vatican, in safe keeping against a possible loss because of some court cases involving members of the clergy.
It’s really a case of ‘povero Francesco’ who has to carry this Cross. However, the Pope must have been working hard to clean the mess. The first step was to appoint a very intelligent administrator of ‘Casa Santa Marta’ the clergy house where he lives, as his laison with the IOR. This is Mgr Battista Ricca, who is accountable only to the Pope and who is a very trusted cleric from Northen Italy.
The Pope has also named a super Commission headed by the former Vatican Librarian Cardinal Raffaele Farina, well known in Vatican circles for his excellent management skills. The other members are non-Italians and include a very distinguished lady: Prof. Mary Glendon, 74, from the Harvard School of Law, a US Ambassador to the Vatican under President George W. Bush and president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.
However, the key person on this Commission is Archbishop Juan Ignacio Ochea de Chincheta, 62, who is Spanish. For years he has been the Dean of Canon Law at Opus Dei University (Santa Croce) in Rome. He will be the co-ordinator of the Commission. The constitution of this Commission was made directly by Pope Francis through a so called ‘chirografia’, a hand written and signed document by the Pope in person.
The Commission will delve into all matters concerning the IOR and Mgr Ochea has all the powers as a delegate and will report directly to the Pope. He will have access to all the documents and monies of the Vatican Bank.
Pope Francis does not like the filters of diplomacy and he wants to be kept well informed, unlike perhaps some of his predecessors who relied too much on the Secretariat of State. It also seems that he wants reports ‘post acquas’, that is, after summer, ready for the meeting of the Commission of Cardinals. This is one of the reasons why he will not go to rest at Castelgandolfo.
This situation must be causing much pain to such a sensitive person as Pope Francis. None of his predecessors tackled the problems of the Curia in such pragmatic Anglo-American fashion. Of course, he is very much aware that within the Curia there are some ‘malcontenti’. The Pope more than once denounced the “careerism” among bishops and priests, the former always pulling ropes to go to larger dioceses and the latter to climb further up the ladder.
He even told the candidates of the Vatican diplomatic academy to avoid “ambition and careerism” while serving the Holy See. He warned nuncios to be on their guard against priests who pester them to become bishops. The Pope does not mince his words and called this “leprosy” within the Church.
Many within the Vatican will query what will happen to the Vatican Bank. This is surely the question that vexes Pope Francis night and day, but he gets his strength from the Holy Spirit. It seems that he is thinking of curtailing the financial activities of the bank. There is a possibility that he will place it under the jurisdiction of the Italian regulator and limit its powers strictly within the Vatican.
In the meantime, Fr Riccardo Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, told the press that the Vatican’s financial authority, known as AIF, will hold its own internal inquiry. Even if Pope Francis rocks the boat, through such a reform the Church will emerge more like Christ and purified from any evil.