VATICAN CITY
Chiesa
Australian cardinal George Pell is the key man of the new course. But the artillery of the old curia isn’t letting up. The indecision of Pope Francis
by Sandro Magister
ROME, July 24, 2015 – “It is like comparing the pontifical Swiss guard with the armed forces of a great power,” secretary of state Pietro Parolin said a few weeks ago with regard to the IOR, the Institute for Works of Religion, the mythical Vatican quasi-bank.
The 4.2 billion euro on its books – he patiently explained – is barely a thousandth of the assets of all the Italian banks, and also well below the cutoff of 9 billion beneath which the Banca d’Italia classifies a bank as “small”…
But as tiny as it may be, the IOR is a big deal for Pope Francis. He wants it to be an example of virtue for all the agencies of the Church. Clean, thrifty, almost penitential.
Last May the current board of the IOR, headed by the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, wanted to engage a Luxembourg-based SICAV, or open-ended investment fund, to make use of the money at its disposal. Among the cardinals on the supervisory board, which also includes Parolin, someone raised objections and the decision ended up going to the desk of the pope. Who rejected it. Because Francis doesn’t like the idea of an “investment bank” with the Church in the middle.
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