CNA Staff, Dec 7, 2020 / 06:15 am (CNA).- A new EWTN channel in Spain will begin broadcasting television programs Dec. 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
The station’s president, José Carlos González-Hurtado, told ACI P… […]
Vatican City, Dec 7, 2020 / 05:55 am (CNA).- The Vatican announced Monday that Pope Francis will travel to Iraq in March 2021. He will be the first pope to ever visit the country, which is still recovering from the devastation inflicted by the Islamic … […]
CNA Staff, Dec 6, 2020 / 04:04 pm (CNA).- Nine months after UK Catholic leaders called for the abolition of a two-child limit on tax credits and other benefits for children, a leading abortion group now reports that the two-child limit is cited as a fa… […]
Vatican City, Dec 6, 2020 / 06:40 am (CNA).- We should ask God for the gift of conversion this Advent, Pope Francis said in his Angelus address Sunday.
Speaking from a window overlooking a rainswept St. Peter’s Square Dec. 6, the pope described … […]
CNA Staff, Dec 5, 2020 / 03:01 pm (CNA).- A coronavirus vaccine developed from cell-lines originating from the cells of an unborn child who was aborted in 1983 can be received without sin, the English and Welsh bishops’ conference said Thursday.
… […]
Vatican City, Dec 5, 2020 / 07:35 am (CNA).- Pope Francis approved Saturday sweeping changes to the Vatican’s financial watchdog authority.
The Holy See press office announced Dec. 5 that the pope had ratified new statutes for the Financial Intelligence Authority, renaming the agency created by Benedict XVI in 2010 to oversee Vatican financial transactions.
The body, which ensures that the Vatican complies with international financial standards, will no longer be known as the Financial Intelligence Authority (Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria, or AIF).
It will now be called the Supervisory and Financial Information Authority (Autorità di Supervisione e Informazione Finanziaria, or ASIF).
The new statutes also redefine the roles of the agency’s president and directorate, as well as establishing a new Regulation and Legal Affairs Unit within the organization.
Carmelo Barbagallo, the authority’s president, told Vatican News that the addition of the word “Supervisory” enabled the agency’s name “to be aligned with the tasks actually assigned to it.”
He noted that, in addition to carrying out its original functions of gathering financial intelligence and combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, the agency had also supervised the Institute for the Works of Religion, or “Vatican bank,” since 2013.
He said that the new unit would handle all legal issues, including regulation.
“The tasks of defining the rules have been separated from those of exercising controls,” he said.
He explained that the agency would now have three units: a Supervision Unit, a Regulation and Legal Affairs Unit, and a Financial Intelligence Unit.
Barbagallo, whose role as president is significantly strengthened by the changes, said that one of the most important novelties was that in future the agency would be required to follow stricter rules on the appointment of new lay personnel.
The watchdog will have to consult a body known as the Independent Evaluation Commission for the Recruitment of Lay Personnel to the Apostolic See, known by its Italian acronym, CIVA.
Barbagallo said this would ensure “a more extensive selection of candidates and a greater control in hiring decisions, avoiding the risk of arbitrariness.”
The approval of the new statutes marks the end of a year of upheaval for the agency. At the start of 2020, the authority was still suspended from the Egmont Group, through which 164 financial intelligence authorities worldwide share information.
The agency was suspended from the group on Nov. 13, 2019, after Vatican gendarmes raided the offices of the Secretariat of State and the AIF. This was followed by the abrupt resignation of René Brülhart, the authority’s high-profile president, and the appointment of Barbagallo as his replacement.
Two prominent figures, Marc Odendall and Juan Zarate, then resigned from the AIF’s board of directors. Odendall said at the time that the AIF had been effectively rendered “an empty shell” and that there was “no point” in remaining involved in its work.
The Egmont Group reinstated the AIF on Jan. 22 this year. In April, Giuseppe Schlitzer was appointed director of the agency, succeeding Tommaso Di Ruzza, who was one of five Vatican employees suspended after the raid.
During an inflight press conference in November 2019, Pope Francis criticized the AIF under Di Ruzza, saying 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.”
The watchdog authority issued its annual report in July. It disclosed that it had received 64 suspicious activity reports in 2019, 15 of which it forwarded to the Promoter of Justice for possible prosecution.
In its annual report, it hailed “the rising trend in the ratio between reports to the Promoter of Justice” and cases of suspicious financial activity.
The report came ahead of a scheduled inspection by Moneyval, the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering watchdog, which has put pressure on the Vatican to prosecute breaches of financial regulations.
Speaking after the release of the AIF’s annual report, Barbagallo said: “Several years have gone by since Moneyval’s first inspection of the Holy See and Vatican City State, which took place in 2012. During this time span, Moneyval has remotely monitored the many advances made by the jurisdiction in the fight to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism.”
“As such, the upcoming inspection is especially important. Its outcome may determine how the jurisdiction is perceived by the financial community.”
A report based on the inspection is scheduled for discussion and adoption at a plenary meeting of Moneyval in Strasbourg, France, on April 26-30, 2021.
CNA Staff, Dec 5, 2020 / 04:40 am (CNA).- A court suspended Thursday a ban on public worship in the Swiss canton of Geneva regarded as one of the broadest measures restricting public religious gatherings in Europe.
The Constitutional Ch… […]
CNA Staff, Dec 4, 2020 / 06:35 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, will present a webinar on the pope’s recent encyclical, Fratelli Tutti.
Entitled "Social Implications of Fratelli Tutti: A Call t… […]
CNA Staff, Dec 4, 2020 / 04:30 pm (CNA).- Actors from the films trilogies the “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” have backed a campaign to turn the former home of Catholic author JRR Tolkien into an educational center.
Project Northmoor is seeking to raise nearly $6.5 million to purchase the house where Tolkien wrote his most famous novels. As of Dec.4, the project has funded $250,000.
A video in support of the project was released Dec. 2. It includes the actors Ian McKellen, who portrayed Gandalf; Martin Freeman, who portrayed Bilbo Baggins; and John Rhys-Davies, who played Gimli.
McKellen tweeted that authors of Tolkien’s stature have museums and educational centers established in their memory. He encouraged Tolkien fans to donate to the campaign.
“We cannot achieve this without the worldwide support of the Tolkien fans,” he said. “We will only succeed if we do this together as a fellowship.”
While a fellow at Pembroke College, and later Merton, Tolkien lived at the house on Northmoor Road in Oxford from 1930 until 1947.
If the project raises enough money, the six-bedroom home will be renovated and the garden restored. This will include a hobbit house in the garden and a pipe-smoking area around Tolkien’s tree. The Tolkien house would also involve creative courses and special events.
“Unbelievably, considering his importance, there is no centre devoted to Tolkien anywhere in the world,” said Rhys-Davies, according to BBC.
“[It would be a] literary hub that will inspire new generations of writers, artists and filmmakers.”
Project Northmoor was founded by British Novelist Julia Golding. She said it is a huge challenge to raise this money in three months, but noted that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“We need only to look at Frodo and Sam’s journey from Rivendell to Mount Doom, which took that same amount of time – and we are inspired that we can do this too, ” she said, according to BBC.
The video also features Leith McPherson, dialect coach on The Hobbit movies; Malcolm Guite, poet and scholar; and Golding, director of Project Northmoor. They highlighted the important influence that Tolkien’s life and literature have had.
“Tolkien’s world has been an inspiration for many artists, writers, filmmakers. But, so far there has been no specific place dedicated to the appreciation of Tolkien’s life,” said Guite.
“Tolkien built his vast mythology for his mythical world between teaching Oxford students the languages and literature he loved,” said Michael Ward, a British scholar and author.
“He also invented his own languages. From the beautiful language of the elves to the terrible Black Speech of Sauron,” said McPherson, switching between Elvish and the Dark Tongue of Mordor.
Golding said that if completed, the house will be dedicated to the fans and expressed hope that the house would become a center for fans from all over the world.
“This is our vision at project Northmoor, a charity set up to purchase the house and then go on to establish the center. We hope one day to welcome Tolkien enthusiasts from the world over to take part in our events.”
CNA Staff, Dec 4, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- A Vatican archbishop expressed “grave concern” Thursday at the rise in attacks on believers praying in places of worship.
In a Dec. 3 address to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Eur… […]
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