Pope Leo XIV rejects use of death penalty in fight against organized crime, drug trafficking

Pope Francis meets members of the Global Solidarity Fund in a room adjacent to the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, May 25, 2022. / Vatican Media.

Vatican City, May 25, 2022 / 06:40 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Wednesday called for the creation of a “new k… […]

Vatican City, Nov 27, 2019 / 05:37 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Wednesday appointed an auditor and Italian banking consultant as president of the Financial Information Authority (AIF), the Vatican’s internal financial watchdog.

Carmelo Barbagallo, 63, is a consultant in the areas of banking, financial supervision, and the Single Supervisory Mechanism. He was previously head of the banking and financial supervision department of the Bank of Italy.

The appointment comes as the Vatican’s financial watchdog is struggling to assert its credibility. The previous president of the AIF, René Brüelhart, resigned his position Nov. 18.

Although the Vatican press office characterized the departure as the end of “a five year term,” Brüelhart had not been appointed for a fixed period, and he made it clear he had resigned.

Shortly thereafter, Marc Odendall, a member of the AIF board, resigned as well, saying that the Egmont Group, through which 164 financial intelligence authorities share information and coordinate their work, had suspended the AIF.

Odendall told the Associated Press that the AIF had been effectively rendered “an empty shell” and that there was “no point” in remaining involved in its work.   

On Oct. 1, Vatican gendarmes raided the offices of the Secretariat of State and the AIF.

Subsequently, a total of five employees and officials were suspended and blocked from entering the Vatican, including Tommaso Di Ruzza, the director of the AIF.

Aboard the papal plane from Tokyo to Rome Nov. 26, Pope Francis confirmed that Di Ruzza is still suspended, despite a press release from the AIF last month that affirmed the agency’s full confidence in him and expressed hope that the matter would be “clarified soon.”

Di Ruzza was suspended because of suspected “bad administration,” the pope said, adding that “it was AIF that did not control, it seems, the crimes of others. And therefore [it failed] in its duty of controls. I hope that they prove it is not so. Because there is, still, the presumption of innocence.”

On the papal flight, the pope was also questioned about wider issues facing the AIF, which was recently suspended by the Egmont Group, through which 164 financial intelligence authorities share information and coordinate their work.

While the concerns of the Egmont Group were “a bit disturbing,” Francis said, the group is not an official international body and issues of sovereignty had to be considered.

Egmont is a “private group,” the pope noted, adding that “MONEYVAL will carry out the scheduled inspection for the first months of the next year, it will do it.”

Barbagallo, who was born in Catania in Sicily, has worked for the Bank of Italy since 1980.

During his military service he worked in Italy’s Guardia di Finanza (Finance Guard) before continuing to work in economics and financial security.

“I am honored to have received this appointment, aware of the full weight of the moral and professional responsibility it carries,” Barbagallo told Vatican News Nov. 27.

He said he will bring his 40 years of experience in the areas of banking, finance, and supervision of the European banking system, adding that he believes “the AIF will be able to give its own contribution in its role as a supervisory authority, so that the fundamental values of fairness and transparency of all the financial movements in which the Holy See is engaged may continue to be affirmed and recognized.”

“I intend to reassure the international system of financial information that all cooperation will be given in full respect of the best international standards,” he said.

The AIF was established by Benedict XVI in 2010 to oversee suspicious financial transactions; it is charged with ensuring that Vatican banking policies comply with international financial standards.

[…]

Vatican City, Jan 10, 2018 / 09:00 am (CNA).- The Vatican announced Wednesday that Colombian Bishop Noel Antonio Londoño Buitrago C.Ss.R. has been appointed papal commissioner for the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a Catholic society of apostolic life.  

Londoño will oversee the community as they continue a process of reform, following revelations that their founder, Luis Fernando Figari, committed serial acts of abuse while leading the community. Several former leaders of the community have faced related allegations.
 
Londoño’s appointment was announced in a Jan. 10 communique from the Vatican, which stated that Londoño, the Bishop of Jericó, would carry out his role alongside Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, who has served as papal delegate overseeing the SCV’s reform process since May 2016.

Tobin will continue to be the group’s liaison with the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and will focus primarily on reforming economic matters. In his role as Commissioner, Londoño will serve oversee the leadership of order as they continue to reform their governing policies and formation procedures.

The Sodalitium Christianae Vitae was established by Figari in 1971 in Peru, and was granted pontifical recognition in 1997. Alejandro Bermúdez, executive director of CNA, is a member of the community.

In addition to founding the SCV, a community of men, Figari also founded the Marian Community of Reconciliation and the Servants of the Plan of God, a community of women and an order of women religious. In 2002, he was named a consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Laity, and served in subsequent consultative roles at the Vatican.  

Figari stepped down as superior general of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae in 2010, after allegations of abuse surfaced in Peru. The current superior general is Alessandro Moroni Llabres.

The community was investigated after the publication of a book in 2015 by journalists Paola Ugaz and Pedro Salinas, chronicling years of alleged sexual, physical and psychological abuse by members of the SCV. In addition to Peru, the community operates in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, the United States, and Italy.

Figari and other former leaders of the community remain the subject of criminal investigations in Peru.

In May 2016 the Pope named Archbishop Tobin as the pontifical delegate charged with overseeing the community’s handling of the investigation and their process of reform.

In February of 2017, a team of independent investigators commissioned by the Sodalitium reported that “Figari sexually assaulted at least one child, manipulated, sexually abused, or harmed several other young people; and physically or psychologically abused dozens of others.”

As a result, the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life issued a decree the same month forbidding Figari from any contact with the religious community, and banning him from returning to Peru without permission from the current superior of the Sodalitium. Figari was also forbidden to make any public statements.

The Vatican made a similar move in the case of the Legionaries of Christ after it was discovered that their founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel, had been living a double life.

In 2006, with the approval of the Pope, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith imposed upon Maciel “a retired life of prayer and penance, renouncing any form of public ministry.” Due to his advanced age, Maciel was not the subject of a formal canonical trial.
 
From that point on, Benedict XVI carried out a process of reform for the Legionaries, and in 2010 named then-Archbishop Velasio de Paolis as papal delegate to serve in a role similar to what Londoño will have for the SVC.

After his appointment, De Paolis formed a commission charged with drafting new constitutions for the Legionaries. He completed his mandate in 2014 when the new constitutions were approved by Pope Francis. The cardinal died in September 2017.

No specific time frame was given for Londoño’s mandate as Commissioner and it is not yet known what steps he will take, however, he is likely to follow the model set by De Paolis, and step aside when the community has a clear path forward.

[…]