Jerry S. Rainforth sends this our way:

Why Pope Francis’ Vatican bank order is a big deal
Analysis
Ed. Condon
Aug 23
18
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Pope Francis issued a rescript Tuesday emphasizing that all Vatican departments and institutions are required to move their investments and cash to the Institute for Works of Religion, commonly called the Vatican Bank, within the next few weeks.

At first glance, the document appeared to be little more than a "hurry up” legal memo to curial departments, giving them until the end of September to finish bringing their cash and investments back into the Vatican’s own institutions from outside banks and and accounts.

But a close read the short text points to something else. It turns out Francis’ order on Tuesday could be one of the more significant financial policy changes of his pontificate.

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The Institute for Works of Religion, Vatican City. Credit: The Pillar
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The rescript says that Francis is providing an "authentic interpretation” of some norms from the pope’s new apostolic constitution governing the Roman curia, Praedicate Evangelium.

But the "interpretation” actually changes part of the law completely — barely five months after Praedicate Evangelium itself was issued.

The changes appear to strip away a major area of competence from APSA, the Holy See department which acts as sovereign wealth fund, contracting body, and paymaster for the curia.

Francis has spent several years building up APSA as the central investment manager for the Vatican. But Tuesday’s reform appears to transfer management of all assets and investments, apart from the Holy See’s real estate portfolio, away from APSA and over to the IOR, which isn’t even a curial department at all, strictly speaking. And all this was done even without a singular mention of APSA in the text of the rescript itself.

Francis’ change could also have a dramatic impact on financial accountability in the Vatican, and bring nearly all curial financial affairs under international oversight.

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Tim Birdnow Mark II
Jerry S. Rainforth very interesting idneed Jerry! I wonder what is going on here. Is it some sort of power grab for all the Church money by Francis and his peeps or is there something more sinister happening?

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:36 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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