VATICAN CITY
Reuters
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY | Wed Jun 26, 2013
(Reuters) – Pope Francis on Wednesday set up a special commission of inquiry into the Vatican bank, his boldest move yet to get to grips with an institution that has embarrassed the Church for decades.
The high-powered, five-member panel, which includes four prelates and a woman Harvard law professor, will report directly to him, bypassing the Vatican bureaucracy that itself has sometimes been tainted by allegations of scandal and corruption.
The Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), as the bank is formally known, has long been tarnished by accusations that it has failed to meet international transparency standards intended to combat money laundering and tax evasion.
The Vatican said the commission, which Francis set up with a personal decree known as a “chirografo,” would enable him “to know better the juridical position and the activities of the Institute to allow an improved harmonisation with the mission of the universal Church”.
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