Pope Benedict Signs Vatican Laws to Comply with International Standards

It just makes sense that the smallest private country (or sovereign state) in the world should comply with the international laws if for no other reason than to prove that they aren't hiding anything. Pope Benedict just signed an executive order guaranteeing adherence to the guidelines. I think it's about time that transparency is established in the Catholic Church.
    .  .  June

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New Vatican Laws to Comply with International Standards:

The Vatican introduced a set of laws to allow its fraud, counterfeiting, terrorism prevention, and transparency standards to comply with international benchmarks. An investigation on the Vatican bank is currently being conducted due to money laundering concerns.

An executive order or a “Motu Proprio” was signed by Pope Benedict to set up internal laws that guarantees adherence to guidelines and coordinate with foreign agencies by the bank and other units of the Vatican.
This was the Vatican’s most significant move to conform to international requirements of additional transparency in its finances.

According to a statement issued by the Vatican, all organizations connected to the Catholic Church administration will take part in the system of legal standard and means created by the international community in order to ensure fair and sincere coexistence within the gradually globalized world.

The latest Vatican City laws intend to allow it to adhere to the regulations set by the Financial Action task Force, an organization based in Paris which keeps a list of countries that do not conform to the terrorism funding and money laundering standards. Vatican City is a sovereign state within Rome which occupies 108 acres of land.


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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.”

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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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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.

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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.

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