The Vatican Bank’s profits increased twentyfold last year over the previous 12 months. The Institute for the Works of Religion earned NZ$106 million in 2014, compared to NZ$4.4 million in 2013. The bulk of the profit – NZ$84.4 million – was given to the Holy See for its operating costs. Releasing its annual report on Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Vatican bank’
Pope nixes Vatican Bank Luxembourg investment fund plan
Tuesday, May 26th, 2015The Pope has rejected a proposal that the Vatican Bank has a variable share capital investment fund based in Luxembourg. The proposal had the approval of the Institute for the Works of Religion’s board and was put forward by its president. Having this type of investment fund would have helped IOR managers manage a portion Read more
Interview: Cardinal’s doubts about Vatican reform
Tuesday, February 17th, 2015
A US cardinal said he has some unanswered questions about the practicality of proposed reforms in the Roman Curia, the Vatican’s main administrative bureaucracy, although he praised efforts to clean up Vatican finances and to combat clergy sexual abuse. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston, also told Crux in a wide-ranging interview on Saturday that Read more
Cardinal Pell challenges the Italians
Friday, December 12th, 2014
A choir of voices has begun lauding Cardinal George Pell for cleaning up the Vatican’s money management operations. And the strongest notes in this hymn of praise come from the basso profondo of the Australian cardinal himself. The 73-year-old Pell, who is officially the prefect of the Vatican’s recently created Secretariat for the Economy, gave Read more
Miracle money: Pell finds hundreds of hidden millions
Tuesday, December 9th, 2014
The Vatican’s murky finances have been spotlighted again by economy secretariat head, Cardinal George Pell. Late last week, at a news conference, Cardinal Pell said hundreds of millions of euros had been found, squirrelled away in various Holy See departments. The millions did not appear on the Vatican’s statements of financial position. Pell was quick Read more
Vatican bank turns a €23m corner
Tuesday, November 25th, 2014
The return of €23m to the Vatican Bank marks a turning point in being accepted again by Italy’s banks. After blocking the funds in a 2010 money laundering investigation, an Italian bank returned the money last week. The Vatican Bank, whose official name is “Institute for Works of Religion” (IOR), said in a statement, the return of Read more
Vatican bank wrote off $20 million Bertone investment
Friday, August 22nd, 2014
The Vatican bank has written off US$20 million that was invested in an Italian television company at the behest of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. Two years ago, the Vatican’s then-Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone, ordered the investment in Lux Vide SpA, for “evangelisation”. The company makes family movies, including films about popes and a series about Read more
Pope Francis means business
Tuesday, August 19th, 2014
The wildly popular Pope Francis is more than a pontiff of the people. He’s an elite manager who’s reforming the Vatican’s troubled finances. The new pope wanted to talk about money. That was the message that went out to a group of seven prominent financiers—major Catholics all—from around the world in the summer of 2013. Read more
Pope Francis and his cardinals: not the same hymn sheet
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014
It was possibly a watershed moment in Holy See media relations. The scene was the Sala Stampa of the Holy See some 10 days ago. Australian Cardinal George Pell was presenting the New Economic Framework for the Holy See, a document which outlines proposed major reforms not only to IOR (the Vatican bank) and to Read more
Vatican bank has new president as net profit plunges
Friday, July 11th, 2014
A new president has been announced for the scandal-plagued Vatican bank, as it was revealed that the institution’s 2013 net profit had plunged. Some 3000 accounts have been also purged from the bank in the last year, with almost 400 not meeting stricter client criteria, requiring a close link with the Church. French financier Jean-Baptiste Read more