UNITED STATES
The Detroit News
Robert Sirico May 3, 2016
Stories of betrayal, deceit and scandal related to Vatican finances have a long history. After roiling in years of heightened scandal and innuendo of even darker conspiracies, Pope Benedict XVI subjected the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), also known as the Vatican Bank, to international banking standards throughout 2010 and 2011 in order to force greater transparency and accountability.
After a leak of financial and other documents alleging corruption and scandal in various parts of the Roman Curia, calls for even greater reforms of the IOR and other financial management issues associated with the Holy See intensified.
Enter Pope Francis.
A strong indication of the newly elected pope’s seriousness in changing this was seen in the appointment of Australian Cardinal George Pell as Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy with full oversight of all economic and administrative activities within the Holy See and Vatican City State. The reform efforts proceeded at a steady pace with PricewaterhouseCoopers as external auditors. Their work was complicated by the fact that there is also an Office of Auditor General, an internal office that was set up by the pope last year.
Despite the complexities and overlaps, all of this augured hope. Until last week, that is.
I arrived in Rome to participate in a conference on Catholic social thought one day after Sen. Bernie Sanders departed after a similar engagement. The Democratic presidential candidate’s finger-wagging at Wall Street and his proposed financial industry reforms came to mind as the news broke that the much-touted audit of Vatican finances had been “suspended.”
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