The VATICAN BANK And The Money Laundering Probe

 The Vatican Bank has a history of secrecy, and this incident isn't any different. According to the article posted below, the Vatican calls the seizure of bank account assets a "misunderstanding" and expresses optimism it will be quickly cleared up. But court documents show that prosecutors say the Vatican Bank deliberately flouted anti-laundering laws with the aim of hiding the ownership, destination and origin of the capital. The outcome of this will be very interesting!
    . . . June

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Vatican Bank mired in laundering scandal
Ventura County Star:

VATICAN CITY (AP) — This is no ordinary bank: The ATMs are in Latin. Priests use a private entrance. A life-size portrait of Pope Benedict XVI hangs on the wall.

Nevertheless, the Institute for Religious Works is a bank, and it's under harsh new scrutiny in a case involving money-laundering allegations that led police to seize €23 million ($30 million) in Vatican assets in September. Critics say the case shows that the 'Vatican Bank' has never shed its penchant for secrecy and scandal.

The Vatican calls the seizure of assets a "misunderstanding" and expresses optimism it will be quickly cleared up. But court documents show that prosecutors say the Vatican Bank deliberately flouted anti-laundering laws "with the aim of hiding the ownership, destination and origin of the capital." The documents also reveal investigators' suspicions that clergy may have acted as fronts for corrupt businessmen and Mafia.

The documents pinpoint two transactions that have not been reported: one in 2009 involving the use of a false name, and another in 2010 in which the Vatican Bank withdrew €650,000 ($860 million) from an Italian bank account but ignored bank requests to disclose where the money was headed.

The new allegations of financial impropriety could not come at a worse time for the Vatican, already hit by revelations that it sheltered pedophile priests. The corruption probe has given new hope to Holocaust survivors who tried unsuccessfully to sue in the United States, alleging that Nazi loot was stored in the Vatican Bank.

Yet the scandal is hardly the first for the centuries-old bank. In 1986, a Vatican financial adviser died after drinking cyanide-laced coffee in prison. Another was found dangling from a rope under London's Blackfriars Bridge in 1982, his pockets stuffed with money and stones. The incidents blackened the bank's reputation, raised suspicions of ties with the Mafia, and cost the Vatican hundreds of millions of dollars in legal clashes with Italian authorities.

On Sept. 21, financial police seized assets from a Vatican Bank account at the Rome branch of Credito Artigiano SpA. Investigators said the Vatican had failed to furnish information on the origin or destination of the funds as required by Italian law.

Read more

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Use Of Condoms Sometimes OK to stop AIDS: Pope

 Using condoms may sometimes be justified to stop the spread of AIDS, Pope Benedict says in a new book, in a major shift that relaxes one of the Vatican's most controversial positions on their use to combat the disease, according to the following article. The pope's words in the book to be published on Tuesday -- while limited in scope and which do not change the Catholic ban on contraception -- were nonetheless greeted as abreakthrough by dissident Catholics, AIDS workers and commentators. It appears to open the door just a crack to a potential change in Church policy.
      .  .  .  June

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Condoms sometimes permissible to stop AIDS: Pope
Top News | Reuters:

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Using condoms may sometimes be justified to stop the spread of AIDS, Pope Benedict says in a new book, in a major shift that relaxes one of the Vatican's most controversial positions on their use to combat the disease.

The pope's words in the book to be published on Tuesday -- while limited in scope and which do not change the Catholic ban on contraception -- were nonetheless greeted as abreakthrough by dissident Catholics, AIDS workers and commentators.



"It is a marvelous victory for common sense and reason, a major step forward toward recognizing that condom use can play a vital role in reducing the future impact of the HIV pandemic, said Jon O'Brien, head of the U.S. group Catholics for Choice.



In the 219-page book, "Light of the World," the pope also speaks frankly about the possibility that he could resign for health reasons and defends wartime pontiff Pius XII against Jewish accusations that he turned a blind eye to the Holocaust.


He says scandals of sexual abuse of minors by priests. were "an unprecedented shock," even though he had followed the issue for years, and says he can understand why people might quit the Church in protest.


But it is the section on condoms in the book -- a long interview with German Catholic journalist Peter Seewald -- that marked a crack in the once tightly shut door of Church policy.


He cites the example of the use of condoms by prostitutes as "a first step toward moralization," even though condoms are "not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection."


Read entire article


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5 ANGLICAN BISHOPS Will Be Welcomed By The Vatican

With a joint letter of resignation, 5 Anglican bishops plan to join the Roman Catholic Church, according to the following article.  One of the reasons may have been the permitting of women bishops and the blessing of homosexual unions that the Anglicans had embraced. The Vatican is making plans to welcome them
    . . . June

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As bishops convert, Vatican moving on plan to welcome Anglicans
Catholic News Agency (CNA):

Vatican City, Nov 10, 2010 / 04:06 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Just weeks after a papal pilgrimage to England, the announcement that five Anglican bishops plan to resign by year’s end and join the Catholic Church is setting wheels in motion at the Vatican.

The Nov. 8 announcement seems to have caught Vatican officials by surprise. And the question of just how these bishops and other former members of the Church of England will enter the Catholic Church has quickly become an important topic of discussion inside the Vatican.

The bishops — Andrew Burnham of Ebbsfleet, Keith Newton of Richborough, and John Broadhurst of Fulham, along with retired bishops Edwin Barnes and David Silk — cited Pope Benedict XVI’s “generous” invitation last year to Anglicans who are seeking “full communion” with the Catholic Church.

In Nov. 2009, the Pope issued the invitation in an apostolic constitution, "Anglicanorum Coetibus.” The document proposed that former Anglicans could enter into “full communion” with the Church as members of specially-tailored jurisdictions, or “personal ordinariates.”

According to the Pope’s plan, these jurisdictions would be under the authority of local Catholic bishops, but members could maintain their “liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions,” including the traditional permission for priests to be married.

With the five bishops’ announcement, eyes are now on the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has yet to provide details on the final shape these ordinariates, might take.

But a timetable does seem to be on the horizon. The doctrine office’s head, Cardinal William Levada, will be leading a special closed-door discussion of the matter with the College of Cardinals on Nov. 19.

One of the resigning bishops, Bishop John Broadhurst, told CNA that his decision to leave the Church of England came after many years of hoping that the Anglicans would move closer to Rome.

Instead, he said, Anglicans have distanced themselves further by embracing such radical departures from Christian tradition as permitting women bishops and blessing homosexual unions.

. . . .  In their joint letter of resignation, the five bishops said they were “distressed by developments … in Anglicanism which we believe to be incompatible with the historic vocation of Anglicanism and the tradition of the Church for nearly two thousand years.”

Read entire article


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Interesting. Do you think that the Church of England position of allowing women bishops and blessing homosexual unions is correct or the position of the Roman Catholic Church, which, so far allows neither. Please leave a comment.


June


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Catholic Church Scandal Over PAPAL KNIGHTHOOD of Kufuor

Recently, The Roman Catholic Church conferred the most pretigious Papal Knighthood on ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor of Ghana, according to the article below. Apparently, someone forgot to do due diligence because they overlooked the fact that Kufuor was a senior member of the Freemasons, long-hated by the Catholic Church. Whoops!
      . . . June

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Scandal Hits Catholic Church
General News 2010-11-06:

…Over Kufour’s Knighthood

A scandal is erupting within the Roman Catholic Church over the recent conferment of the prestigious Knight Commanderhood Order of Pope Pius IX on ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor by Pope Benedict XVI.

A damning article in circulation within the Roman Catholic Church reveals the ex-president’s senior membership status of a powerful secret society in the UK, called the United Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of England, which he served as a Senior Grand Deacon (SGD) and a Grand Sword Bearer (PGSwdB

The Freemasons are bitterly abhorred by the Vatican, and all Roman Catholic worshipers have been prohibited by the Pope himself from joining. Anybody who disobeys this order automatically ceases to be a member of the church.

The article also questioned the selection of Mr. Kufuor for the conferment in the face of his alleged adulterous affairs with Gizzle Yadzi, endemic corruption, murders, narcotic drugs afloat the shores of Ghana during his tenure as president and his membership of a secret society, the Freemasons.

A member of the church, Dominic Sagoe, Ghanaian resident in Norway, wrote the article and insists that Mr. Kufuor is undeserving of the knighthood because he is not a Roman Catholic, but rather an Anglican who became a catholic under bizarre circumstance.

It also accused the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference of hypocrisy and the Catholic Standard Newspaper of dishonesty.

While the article reveals that Ghana Catholic Bishops for whatever reason, failed to do due diligence on Mr. Kufuor before presenting his name to Pope Benedict XVI, for the title to be conferred on him, it also exposes a situation where Mr. Kufuor committed sacrilege by dishonestly receiving the award knowing he is not supposed to by virtue of his membership of a Lodge.

The revelation also puts his wife, Mrs. Theresa Kufuor, in collision course with both the Vatican and the Ghana Catholic Bishops for not drawing their attention to her husband’s membership of a secret society which the church has banned its members from joining.

The Catholic Church has been a persistent critic of Freemasonry. Since the early 18th century, the Vatican has issued several papal bulls banning membership of Catholics from Freemasonry under threat of excommunication. Currently, as reiterated in 1983, Catholics who become Masons are in a state of Grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion, but the penalty of excommunication is not formally declared.

The Church argues that Freemasonry’s philosophy is antithetical to Christian doctrine and that it is at many times and places anti-clerical in intent. The 1913 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia argued that some of the ceremonial in the Scottish Rite is anti-Catholic. The Masonic use of Biblical imagery is also seen by the Catholic Church being done in a way that suggests antichrist.

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Are THE POPE And Stephen Hawkins Saying The Same Thing?

 The Pope told scientists that their research can lead to knowledge of God by revealing the natural order of the universe. Stephen Hawkins, in his new book earlier this month said that the universe can and will create itself from nothing because of Law.. I believe that they are both saying the same thing.. They are both talking about the Natural Laws of the Universe.
    . . . June

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Pope says science can unite humans with God

The Christian Century:

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI told scientists that their research can lead to knowledge of God by revealing the natural order of the universe.

The pope made his remarks on Thursday (Oct. 28) before a plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences at the Vatican.

The evident logic governing the universe 'leads us to admit the existence of an all-powerful Reason, which is other than that of man, and which sustains the world,' Benedict said.

"This is the meeting point between the natural sciences and religion," the pope said. "As a result, science becomes a place of dialogue, a meeting between man and nature and, potentially, even between man and his Creator."

The academy is a group of 80 eminent scientists, including more than two dozen Nobel laureates, who promote research into natural science and related philosophical issues. Membership is without regard to religious affiliation.

One of the academy's most famous members, British physicist Stephen Hawking, provoked controversy last month by arguing in a new book that the existence of the universe provides no evidence of the existence of God.

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing," Hawking wrote. "It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."

Read entire article

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Could The VATICAN Owe 8 Billion Euros in Back Taxes?

Apparently, eight billion euros worth of tax breaks enjoyed by the Catholic Church in Italy could be in breach of European law and may have to be repaid, according to the article below. The question is whether the European Commission decides Church-run businesses should really be considered as commercial enterprises. I have to assume that if that's the case, there must be lots of other religious institutions in the same boat.
    . . . June
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Vatican May Owe €8 Billion in Back Taxes
Free Market Mojo:

Eight billion euros worth of tax breaks pocketed by the Catholic Church in Italy could be in breach of European law and may have to be repaid, it has emerged.

The European Commission has said that tax relief on 100,000 Italian properties enjoyed by the Holy See since 2005 was under the spotlight, after announcing an “in-depth” investigation.

A spokesperson for Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said the EC suspected the exemption amounted to state aid that was at odds with European Union law.

“These exemptions may distort competition,” he said. “Thus far, Italian authorities have not provided sufficient evidence to enable the Commission to conclude that the contested measures are justified by the principles of the Italian tax system”.

The crux is whether the EC decides Church-run businesses should really be considered as commercial enterprises and therefore liable to taxation.

If Italy is found to have violated EU subsidy laws, it will have to cancel the exemption and seek reimbursement from the church. If that happened, the financial consequences for the Catholic Church would be grave.

Read entire article


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Where is Vatican Transparency as Italy Magistrates Probe Bank?

According to the article below, the Vatican has yet to formally commit to financial transparency, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, one week after Italian magistrates opened a probe into its bank for alleged violations of money-laundering laws. The Vatican say that they want to get on the Paris-based group’s so-called White List of nations that comply with global norms, but apparently, it has yet to start a transparency process. Are they dragging their feet?
    . . . June

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.Vatican Keeps OECD Waiting on Transparency as Italy Magistrates Probe Bank
Bloomberg:

The Vatican has yet to formally commit to financial transparency, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said one week after Italian magistrates opened a probe into its bank for alleged violations of money-laundering laws.

While the Holy See said last week that it’s in talks with the OECD about getting on the Paris-based group’s so-called White List of nations that comply with global norms, it has not taken the first step toward transparency, said Jeffrey Owens, head of the OECD’s Center for Tax Policy and Administration.

“The speed of the negotiations depends very much on them,” Owens said by phone from Singapore. “The first thing is for them to make a formal commitment to the standards of transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes.”

The Holy See said on Sept. 21 that the Vatican Bank, or the Institute for Religious Works, and its two top executives had been placed under investigation by Rome prosecutors for allegedly omitting data in wire transfers from an Italian account. Prosecutors froze 23 million euros ($31 million) in an IOR account at a Rome branch of Credito Artigiano SpA, newspapers including Il Sole 24 Ore said that day.

The IOR’s statutes call for it to collect and manage cash, assets and properties earmarked for religious purposes. The Vatican has denied wrongdoing in the probe, saying it stems from a “misunderstanding” between the IOR and Credito Artigiano.

‘God’s Banker’

Vatican Bank Chairman Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who is also under investigation, said the Holy See set up a panel earlier this year to implement financial-transparency and anti-money- laundering rules. He declined to comment on the probe.


Read entire article

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Pope Still Voices Trust In Vatican Bank Director

 According to the article below, Pope Benedict XVI personally told the director of the Vatican Bank that he trusted him and appreciates the work he is doing after Italian authorities launched a money-laundering investigation into the bank. Italian prosecutors froze Vatican Bank transactions last week after the bank failed to provide all the information required by anti-money laundering rules. Tedeschi claims it was due to a misunderstanding.
    . . . June

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Pope voices trust in Vatican Bank head after probe
CNN.comSeptember 27, 2010 -- Updated 1349 GMT (2149 HKT):

Rome, Italy (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI personally told the director of the Vatican Bank that he trusted him and appreciates the work he is doing, the Vatican said Monday, after Italian authorities launched a money-laundering investigation into the bank.

Ettore Tedeschi, the bank head, was among the faithful meeting Benedict Sunday after the pope's weekly Angelus address.

Tedeschi kissed the pope's hand and gave him a copy of his book 'Money and Paradise,' and they exchanged a few words, the Vatican said.

Italian prosecutors last week froze Vatican Bank transactions for the first time ever, after the bank failed to provide all the information required by anti-money laundering rules.

Tedeschi told CNN last week he was incredulous and "humiliated" when he learned Italian investigators were looking into money-laundering allegations against the bank.
 
He said the probe was the result of a "misunderstanding."

Italian authorities informed the Vatican Bank about the probe on Tuesday, prosecutor Nello Rossi told CNN.
Prosecutors seized 23 million euros (about $30 million) in Vatican Bank transactions "as a cautionary measure" on Monday, he said.

"My first reaction was of incredulity and afterwards, that of feeling humiliated in the intense work that, along with (bank) Director-General (Paolo) Cipriani and all of the institute's managers, I've been carrying out," Tedeschi told CNN by e-mail Friday.

"After discussing with Dr. Cipriani the actions that spurred the inquiry, I was relieved, and I've realized that we had to immediately take action in explaining the facts to various levels and places," he said.

Tedeschi said he also realized the need to speed up the process of getting the Vatican Bank on the "white list" of banks that comply with internationally agreed standards, "to prevent other misunderstanding events like the one that just happened."

This is not the first time Italian prosecutors have investigated the bank, but probes are extremely rare, Rossi said.

Read entire article

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Money Laundering Probe - Vatican Will Fully Cooperate

The Vatican money laundering probe is still the focus of the Italian Government and according to the article below, President Ettore Gotti Tedeschi said that he was humiliated and baffled.He reaffirmed the need for the Vatican bank to get on the global ‘white list’ of banks that comply with internationally agreed standards. That would help!
   . . . June


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Vatican to cooperate with money laundering probe:
Brunei News.Net Saturday 25th September, 2010

President Ettore Gotti Tedeschi on Friday told CNN that he was humiliated and baffled by the Italian government’s decision to probe the bank on money laundering allegations and that he would cooperate fully with the investigation.

The Italian prosecutor, Nello Rossi, announced earlier in the week on Tuesday that he was looking into the banks activities after it learned of two transactions that did not meet anti-laundering regulations.

Italian prosecutor as a precautionary measure. The first transaction was for US$26 million and the second for US$4 million.

The transactions reportedly did not provide enough information, which gave rise to suspicion.

Tedeschi has reaffirmed the need for the Vatican bank to get on the global ‘white list’ of banks that comply with internationally agreed standards.

Tedeschi insists the bank is committed to transparency, but his comments were contradicted by the author Jeffrey Robinson who claims that the Vatican bank is the “most secret bank in the world” and that its financial reach is unknown.

Also unknown is the exact legal authority of Italy to investigate the bank as the Vatican is recognised as a sovereign territory, the two money transfers that were halted took place on Italian soil.

Read entire article . . .

Vatican Bank Scandal amid Italian Money-Laundering Probe

According to the article below, Italian authorities have seized $30 million from Vatican accounts and placed the bank's president and chief executive under investigation. The probe centers on two money transfers that allegedly didn't include all the information required by Italy's anti-money-laundering laws. I sincerely hope that it turns out to be a tempest in a teapot.
    . . . June


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Vatican Bank Scandal amid Italian Money-Laundering Probe
Yahoo! News:

When news first broke on Tuesday that Italian prosecutors were investigating the Vatican Bank for violations of anti-money-laundering regulations, the story seemed to be that the bank had returned to its old ways.

Reports in the press referenced the Vatican's connection to a 1980s financial scandal in which Italy's second largest bank, Banco Ambrosiano, went spectacularly bankrupt, collapsing under $1.3 billion of debt amid allegations of involvement by the Mafia and Masonic lodges. 'The Vatican Bank has a very negative image,' says Philip Willan, author of The Last Supper, a book about the death of the Banco Ambrosiano's chairman, who was found hanging under a London bridge, his pockets stuffed with rocks and thousands of dollars in cash. 'Every time there's a whiff of scandal, all the papers dig out their files.'

The Vatican Bank, a private bank that manages assets for religious orders and funds for Catholic charities, is estimated to hold assets worth $5 billion. In this latest scandal, Italian authorities have seized $30 million from Vatican accounts and placed the bank's president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, and chief executive, Paolo Cipriani, under investigation. The probe centers on two money transfers - $26 million to JPMorgan Frankfurt and $4 million to Italy's Banca del Fucino - that allegedly didn't include all the information required by Italy's anti-money-laundering laws. According to Italian reports, prosecutors are trying to find out for whom the money was destined and the identity of the sender.

The Vatican Bank denies any wrongdoing and puts the missing information down to a "procedural error." 
But the very fact the investigation exists at all is an indication that the days of Vatican secrecy - at least when it comes to banking - could soon be over. The worst of the bank's excesses came at the height of the Cold War, says Willan, when the Catholic Church was consumed by the threat of the Soviet Union. In a sharply divided world, the Holy See found itself on the same side as the Mafia, whose Sicilian vote-buying operations propped up the Christian Democrats against the communists. Meanwhile, the Vatican's sovereign status and tight-lipped policies offered Italians an offshore bank they could walk to, ideal for funneling funds to resistance groups in Eastern Europe or Central America, or otherwise moving money out of the country. "The feeling was that anything was justified if it was being done to combat communism," says Willan.

The bank's dealings got so complicated that it's not clear if even the Vatican knew what was going on. In the investigation following the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, the Vatican said it was surprised to find out it was the failed bank's largest shareholder. The Vatican Bank's then president, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, avoided trial by claiming diplomatic immunity, and though it denied any misconduct, the Vatican agreed to pay $250 million to Banco Ambrosiano's creditors.

Read entire article . . .