Pope Francis just made a major move to end corruption in the Vatican Bank. He’s one of the few people in the world who seems willing to tackle banking scandals with meaningful action.
The Vatican Bank will either be reformed or closed.
The Vatican Bank is officially known as the Institute for Religious Works. Its mission is to administer assets that are “intended for works of religion or charity” around the world. However, its scandal-ridden reputation labels it as a place to hide transactions and launder money. Pope Francis vowed he would either reform the institution or close it.On Wednesday, Francis replaced four of the five cardinals appointed by his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, to oversee the bank. Days before announcing his retirement last February, Benedict confirmed that the existing members of the supervisory board would serve for another 5-year term. Now, all but one of them is gone.
all of us who care need to pray for Pope Frankie's safety, for all the good he's done this i think will rattle the most bones he's going into the pockets of those who have corrupted the Vatican bank. i wonder what or who they thought they were electing for Pope, bet it's got to be one heck of a surprise, but ruffling feathers and cutting off mega buck rackets can be harmful to his health.
Before leaving his post, Benedict also appointed German industrialist Ernst Von Freyberg as the new president of the bank. Von Freyberg is the first non-Italian to hold the position. He has worked to bring the bank up to international standards of transparency. By reviewing 1500 accounts a month, he and his team quickly closed a number of questionable ones. So far, there is no indication that Von Freyberg will be replaced.An investigation into the bank’s scandals by Italian officials is also ongoing. Last June, they arrested a Vatican accountant, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, who worked closely with the bank, for allegedly plotting to smuggle 20 million euros ($26 million) into Italy from a Swiss bank account. Three days later, both the director and deputy-director of the bank resigned “in the best interest of the institute and the Holy See.”
the investigator obviously was not getting it done for Pope Frankie to appt special investigation.
Pope Francis took early steps toward reform.
Francis took some early steps of his own to address the problems. In the middle of 2013, he appointed an‘independent commission of inquiry’ to investigate the bank’s activities. Last October, for the first time in its history, the Vatican Bank made its annual financial report public.Forbes Magazine has called the Vatican Bank “the most secret bank in the world”. Its money laundering scandals have cost it some significant ties to big financial institutions, such as JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank Italia. The changes that are being made are just a start in addressing the corruption. The bank isn’t out of the woods yet. Just last month, MoneyVal, a monitoring committee of the Council of Europe, stated that the institution’s internal controls must be strengthened or it remains at risk of being used for money laundering operations.
IMO my suspicions of other Popes being more puppets than Popes might be true this was not set up overnight, which means it was more entrenched into the corruption making it not a cake walk to reform, and much resistance to Pope Frankie on your journey GO WITH GOD
