Reforms will ensure Vatican bank can never again embarrass Holy See, cardinal says
March 19, 2014
The chairman of the Vatican’s newly created Council for the Economy has said that reforms at the Vatican Bank, the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), are intended to ensure “that from now on the IOR will no longer be able to harm the Holy See’s reputation.”
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who is also a member of the Council of Cardinals advising Pope Francis on Vatican reforms, said in an interview with Palabra that the Pontiff has not yet decided on the future fate of the IOR. Several proposals, put forward by an ad hoc committee examining the institution, are currently being explored, he said.
Shaken by a scandals in the past, and by more recent complaints about lax standards for recording financial transactions, the IOR has undergone a series of internal reforms and leadership changes in the past two years. Some observers have called for the abolition of the Vatican bank, but informed Vatican sources consider that step unlikely.
Cardinal Marx did day, however, that the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) should be considered the "bank" of the Holy See, since it handles the Vatican's normal financial transactions.
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