To achieve the transparency and accountability he wants in the Vatican Bank, Pope Francis has set up a new commission to allow “a greater harmonisation” with the universal mission of the Church. This was “Pope Francis’ personal choice. It strays from the usual dynamic through which these decisions are taken,” a Vatican official speaking under Read more
The president of the “bank” of the Holy See, in this interview with Vatican Radio, opens his campaign to restore credibility to the controversial institution. With more integrity, more transparency, more communication Q: President Ernst von Freyberg, do you like your job, coming from Frankfurt down to Rome, working inside the Vatican? A: It is Read more
The new Vatican financial watchdog set up to prevent money-laundering says it uncovered six “suspicious transactions” last year, one involving the Vatican Bank. Two of those cases were forwarded to Vatican prosecutors for further investigation, and the other four may still warrant more formal probes, the Financial Information Agency said in its first annual report. Read more
The Vatican has confirmed that the Vatican Bank, the Institute for Religious Works, will start publishing its balance sheets online by the end of 2013. The news was announced by the bank’s new president, Ernst von Freyberg, in a meeting with bank staff. He said that other documents would also be made public on a Read more
A question mark hangs over the future of the Vatican Bank as Pope Francis is reported to be considering suggestions from two cardinals that it be closed. Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, tipped as a possible Vatican Secretary of State, told The Sunday Times that Francis would consider appeals made by Cardinals Christoph Schönborn of Vienna Read more
René Brülhart, 40, has been the director of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority (FIA) for nearly half a year. The Swiss lawyer and former head of Liechtenstein’s financial intelligence unit is on a mission to clear the Vatican Bank of all suspicions of money laundering and other illegal financial transactions. SPIEGEL: Mr. Brülhart, are you partly Read more
Sparks flew over the Vatican Bank when cardinals met on the eve of the conclave that elected Pope Francis, according to Vatican watcher Andrea Tornielli. The journalist said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, administrator of the Holy See until the new pope was elected, criticised Brazilian Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz for previously complaining about the management Read more
After a long recruitment search, a German lawyer has been headhunted to become president of the Vatican Bank, an institution troubled in the past by scandal and more recently by complaints about inadequate safeguards against money-laundering. Ernst von Freyberg is currently chairman of the Blohm+Voss Group, a Hamburg-based company that builds and repairs yachts and Read more
Some institutions may not adapt to 21st-century radical transparency. The papacy’s turn to inflammatory rhetoric while hit by a series of damaging leaks suggests that it’s struggling. Strange things have been happening at the Vatican this year. Beginning in January, documents written by high-level figures in the Catholic Church began finding their way into the Read more
The Vatican has hired a Swiss anti-money-laundering expert to advise it as it moves into a new phase of trying to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The announcement Tuesday came two months after the Holy See passed a key European financial transparency test, but received failing grades for its financial watchdog agency and its Read more