Category: Financial reform

Vatican officials seek to hamstring former auditor’s $9.6 million lawsuit

by bcadmin | Nov 18, 2022 | Auditor general, Financial reform, lead, Libero Milone, News, Pope Francis, Vatican, Vatican finances, Vatican tribunal | 0 |

Just a week after the Vatican’s first auditor general and his deputy filed a $9.6 million lawsuit for wrongful dismissal when they were fired just two years into their mandate, the Vatican’s tribunal rejected the claim.

Cardinals and ex-rivals spar over testimony in Vatican ‘Trial of the Century’

by bcadmin | May 7, 2022 | Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Cardinal George Pell, Financial reform, lead, News, Pope Francis, Vatican, Vatican finances, Vatican trial | 0 |

Australian Cardinal George Pell has accused fellow Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who is currently on trial for financial crimes, of providing “incomplete” information during his testimony and of thwarting efforts aimed at transparency.

Italian cardinal becomes first red hat to stand trial at Vatican

by bcadmin | Oct 1, 2021 | Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Financial reform, lead, London deal, News, Vatican, Vatican finances, Vatican trial | 0 |

When the Vatican’s megatrial for financial crimes begins next week, one of the star figures will be Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who is the first cardinal to be indicted by the small city-state.

Cardinal Pell says he ‘underestimated’ opponents to his Vatican financial reform attempts

by bcadmin | Sep 24, 2021 | Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Cardinal George Pell, Financial reform, lead, News, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Vatican, Vatican finances, Vatican trial | 0 |

Australian Cardinal George Pell has again spoken out about his attempted reform efforts of the Holy See’s finances while he was still head of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy, saying he underestimated those who resisted his decisions.

At Vatican trial, will the real Alberto Perlasca finally stand up?

by bcadmin | Aug 8, 2021 | Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Financial reform, lead, London financial scandal, monsignor alberto perlasca, News, News Analysis, Secretariat of State, Vatican trial | 0 |

ROME – Anyone who’s ever seen the classic mafia movie “Goodfellas” knows the central character, played brilliantly by Ray Liotta, lives the life to the full until it all comes crashing down and he’s busted. He then does what any self-respecting thug would – he flips, becomes the star witness

Day 1 of Vatican mega-trial begs question: Are prosecutors, judges out of their depth?

by bcadmin | Jul 28, 2021 | Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Financial reform, lead, London financial scandal, News, News Analysis, Promoter of Justice, Rene Brulhart, Vatican tribunal | 0 |

Even the three-ring circus that was the Vatileaks II trial in 2016 pales in comparison in terms of the complexity this time around.

Historic Vatican indictments raise as many questions as they answer

by bcadmin | Jul 4, 2021 | Arcbishop Angelo Becciu, Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Financial reform, lead, News, News Analysis, Promoter of Justice, Rene Brulhart, Secretariat of State, Vatican trial | 0 |

How the responses are fleshed out in the days and months to come will determine whether Saturday is indeed remembered as a truly historic turning point, or merely the latest chapter in everything in the Vatican changing so that everything can stay the same.

As new report released, Vatican bank chief says ‘bad old days’ are done

by bcadmin | Jun 11, 2021 | Financial reform, financial report, Institute for the Works of Religion, Interviews, IRS, Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, lead, Moneyval, News, News Analysis, Secretariat of State, Vatican Bank, Vatican finances | 0 |

In tandem with other milestones in recent years, President Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, the French economist and banker who’s led the IOR since 2014, believes June 2021 marks an historic turning point.

No matter how it’s framed, report card on Vatican reform a mixed bag

by bcadmin | Jun 10, 2021 | Carmelo Barbagallo, Financial reform, Financial Supervision and Information Authority, lead, London, Moneyval, News, News Analysis, Secretariat of State, Vatican finances | 0 |

There are troubling elements of the Moneyval findings that can’t simply be spun away or chalked up to “areas for growth,” especially for a financial reform under Pope Francis that’s supposedly been underway for the better part of a decade.

A reforming pope’s dilemma: Using the center to deliver decentralization

by bcadmin | Jun 9, 2021 | audit, Auditor general, clerical sexual abuse, Code of Canon Law, Decentralization, Diocese of Rome, Financial reform, lead, motu proprio, News, News Analysis, Pope Francis | 0 |

The more a given pope sees himself as a reformer, the more inclined he often is to act like an old-school absolute monarch to advance that agenda.

Taking a ‘wait and see’ stance on Pope’s latest blow for accountability

by bcadmin | May 2, 2021 | Bishop accountability, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Clericalism, Financial reform, lead, News, News Analysis, Pope Francis, Reform, Vatican criminal justice, Vatican tribunals | 0 |

Before getting terribly excited about Pope Francis’s latest legal move to enforce accountability at the highest levels, there are at least three reasons to take a “wait and see” attitude.

‘Pope of the Little Guy’ caught up in the heavy lifting of reform

by bcadmin | Mar 28, 2021 | Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, clerical sexual abuse, deficits, Financial reform, Juan Carlos Cruz, lead, London, News, News Analysis, Pope Francis, pre-seminary | 0 |

Pope Francis legendarily has a keen sense of justice and a hard-wired bias in favor of the underdog, but it’s also clear that Francis, like pretty much every reformer pope before him, is still struggling with the institutional translation of those core instincts.