Pope Prepares Ior Reform: “the Church Is Not a Company”

By Andrea Tornielli
Vatican Insider
April 25, 2013

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/ior-bergoglio-papa-el-papa-pope-24315/

“Everything is necessary, offices are necessary, but only to a certain extent,” Pope Francis stated yesterday in the homily he pronounced during his customary morning mass in St. Martha’s House. In his message he also made explicit reference to the Vatican bank (IOR), which has had a rocky history, having often been at the centre of controversies, scandals and investigations.

His words indicated that the Vatican bank, along with all Curia’s various bodies, would be undergoing a review and reform in the next few months. The IOR, however, will not be shut down.

Francis’ words were centred around the profound essence of the Church, which must never consider itself a “company” that “makes deals to gain more partners”, neither does it measure its success in terms of organisation. “The path Jesus chose for his Church is a different one: he chose the difficult path, the path of the Cross, the path of persecution.” The Church begins “in the heart of the Father.”

“We, the women and men of the Church, we are in the middle of a love story: each of us is a link in this chain of love. And if we do not understand this, we have understood nothing of what the Church is,” Francis said. He spoke about the risk the Church faces if it focuses too much on organisation and becoming “a bit bureaucratic”: if it does become so, “it loses its key substance and runs the risk of turning into an NGO. And the Church is not an NGO. It's a love story.” The Pope then paused, looked at the faithful, amongst which there was a group of Vatican bank employees and said: “But there are those from the IOR ... excuse me, eh! .. some things are necessary, offices are required ... ok! but they are necessary up to a certain point: as an aid to this love story. But when organization takes first place, love falls down and the Church, poor thing, becomes an NGO. And this is not the way forward."

Taking a closer look at these words, pronounced off-the-cuff by Pope Francis and faithfully quoted by Vatican Radio, one senses that they do not express the Pope’s intention to close the Vatican bank down, but rather, to make it more transparent. And according to authoritative sources, this is the theory that is currently being studied.

Honduran cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Madariaga, the President of the group of eight cardinals whom the Pope appointed as advisors in matters of Church government and to study the much-needed reform of the Roman Curia, last 13 April, stated: “We will address a number of issues with the Pope, which definitely includes the IOR.”

Over the past weeks, the spokesman for the archdiocese of Buenos Aires, Federico Wals, did not exclude the possibility of the Vatican Bank being closed down. But La Stampa, one of Italy’s major dailies, has learnt that to this date, the Pope and his closest collaborators have not taken this into consideration. When he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio became familiar – as did many other bishops – with a side of the IOR that doesn’t usually make the headlines: when the financial crisis struck, he received help in rescuing the diocese’s finances. The future Pope had reformed said finances, keeping meticulous accounts, controlling spending and taking a line of austerity.

This is the direction the IOR reform should take too, in the context of streamlining and reviewing the Curia’s offices. The aim – as outlined by cardinals during the pre-Conclave general congregations - is to remove any ambiguities surrounding the management of the IOR’s accounts, the transparency of its operations, the clarity of its aims and the privileges granted to its employees and collaborators.

“There is a black legend against the IOR”, writes Aldo Maria Valli, a Vatican correspondent for Italian news programme Tg1, in his new book Il forziere dei Papi. Storia, volti e misteri dello Ior (The Popes’ coffers. History, faces and mysteries of the IOR) published by Ancora and in bookstores since yesterday. “And yet, precisely because these are the Popes’ coffers, the IOR has an even greater duty to transparency.”