Pope Francis wants Catholic Church to be a model of austerity and honesty and could restructure or close the Vatican Bank, according to sources at the Vatican. The decision follows the scandals in which bank was involved and its lack of transparency.
One of his pontificate tests is related to the Institute for Religious Works (Istituto per le Opere di Religione – IOR – the formal name of the bank), a negative image source for Vatican for the past three decades, according to CNBC.
Last year, an European agency responsible for combating money laundering concluded that the Vatican Bank failed to comply with some of EU standards on fighting financial crime.
“Certainly, if the Pope wants, he can close the bank,” said a priest with experience in relation to the financial institution. The future of the bank is one of the main issues facing Pope Francis, he said.
Significant reforms could take place only after a certain period and perhaps after changes in the Secretariat of State. These changes could include replacing Chief Secretary, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, number two in the Vatican hierarchy, blamed for not preventing internal conflicts during the pontificate of eight years of Pope Francis predecessor.
Pope Francis examines all options available. Another Vatican official who is not a priest, said the bank would rather be “restructured” than closed.
Vatican Bank manages the money of international Catholic institutions and funds of religious orders. “It will take time to change the bank. But I would not rule out anything, even its closure in the future. Pope Francis is doing amazing things every day,” he said.
One option would be to reduce the bank’s activity to administer funds necessary only for Vatican, thus reducing drastically the number of external accounts and vulnerability to abuses. “We could just tell Jesuits, Dominicans and Franciscans: Gentlemen, you must move your business elsewhere,” the source said. A portion of the profits generated by the bank helped the Holy See to balance its budget in the past, covering spending of tens of millions of dollars. In the case of closing or reducing bank’s activity, new sources of revenue have to be identified, the source added.
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