Pope Francis instructs Vatican entities to move all funds to Vatican bank by Sept. 30

Hannah Brockhaus   By Hannah Brockhaus for CNA

 

The Institute for Religious Works, or ‘Vatican bank’. (File Photo/CNA).

Rome Newsroom, Aug 23, 2022 / 05:51 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has ordered that the Holy See and connected entities move all financial assets to the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), commonly known as the Vatican bank.

The pope’s rescript, issued Aug. 23, clarifies the interpretation of a paragraph in the new constitution of the Roman Curia, Praedicate Evangelium, promulgated in March.

According to Francis’ rescript, financial and liquid assets held in banks other than the IOR must be moved to the Vatican bank within 30 days of Sept. 1, 2022.

The IOR, based in Vatican City State, has 110 employees and 14,519 clients. As of 2021, it looked after 5.2 billion euros ($5.6 billion) of client assets.

Though commonly called a “bank,” the IOR is technically a financial institute, with no branches, working within Vatican City State to provide services to clients, which include the Holy See and connected entities, religious orders, clergy, Catholic institutions, and Holy See employees.

The IOR saw its number of clients decline by 472, from 14,991 clients at the end of 2020 to 14,519 in 2021. Nearly half of its clients in 2019 were religious orders.

According to its annual report, the financial institution’s $19 million net profit in 2021 was also down from $44 million in 2020 and $46 million in 2019.

In his Aug. 23 rescript, Pope Francis said article 219, paragraph 3 of Praedicate Evangelium “must be interpreted to mean that the activity of asset manager and custodian of the movable patrimony of the Holy See and of the Institutions connected with the Holy See is the exclusive responsibility of the Institute for Works of Religion.”

The decree will force Holy See institutions, including the Secretariat of State, to move their financial assets to the IOR by the end of September. The Secretariat of State is known to have had accounts in Swiss financial institutions, including Credit Suisse, through which the controversial London building investment was initially carried out.

Article 219, paragraph 3 of the new curial constitution says: “The execution of the financial transactions referred to in §§ 1 and 2 is carried out through the Institute for the Works of Religion,” the IOR.

The financial transactions described in paragraphs 1 and 2 of article 219 are the administration and management of the Holy See’s real estate and movable assets and entities entrusting their assets to the Holy See.


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12 Comments

  1. A medieval battlement with cannons the Vatican Bank draws all incomes [connected entities] into its protective bowels per command of the Vatican’s supreme Commandant. What would Larry Chapp say?
    With little knowledge of the financial goings on of the Vatican, the recent absolution, blessing, elevation of scandal ridden Cardinal Angelo Becciu it’s likely Chapp would have a say about it. What, I could only guess. Although listening and watching with interest last night to Marcus Grodi’s Journey Home interview of Chapp the opinion would still be just that. Larry Chapp has a very impressive, complex background calling himself as a youth a bookish upstart, who left Catholicism, turned to science for facts and truth demanding verifiable answers, eventually convinced by Evangelism there was some truth to scripture. The rest well known his return to Catholicism, years of professorship, finally finding a more vivacious, satisfying expression of Catholicism in the thought and life of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Workers movement. Outrageous to many conservatives [he calls Trads] later vindicated. Since the presumption that Day was a Marxist type, as Chapp articulated she has been vindicated by her being declared a servant of God.
    Personally, Larry Chapp’s views of the Church and Catholicism became clearer and quite edifying through his contribution of essays to CWR.

  2. Hello! What is the reason or reasons, that the Pope wants financial assets brought to the Vatican by the end of September?

    • Exactly my question! CATHOLIC WORLDVREPORT: Your article is unfinished without an explanation for WHY the Pope is doing this. Will be watching and looking for answers here and elsewhere

      • It’s simply greed… most assets are donations to the poor, sick and to assist the peoples parishes… maybe they should give more than 1.5% of charitable collections to who the people intend it for.. I won’t be putting any more money into the church.. it’s no longer doing Gods work!!

  3. Because they know of the doom from the economic collapse that’s about to unfold. Here it comes, brace yourself. By food now while you can.

    • Exactly.
      Civil war in the USA will coincide with the rigging of the mid term elections.

      European Countries will erupt in civil disobedience due to limited gas supply and exploding costs sends business to the wall.

      And we have the inflationary issue, resulting in raising interest rates, which then collapses the property bubble, sending mortgagees and possibly banks broke.

      It’s all happening now, and the Vatican is smart to demand repatriation of all financial assets to convert into hard assets like Gold, and store it in their depositary.

      The world is on tilt.

  4. Given the impending collapse of the American, and other national, economies, I understand why Francis has chosen to recall all liquid assets to Rome. The world is on the verge of a global take-over of all wealth for redistribution, and the current war on Christianity means a repeat of the 20th Century persecution of religious institutions. Confiscation, nationalization are both terms the Holy See is familiar with.

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