MondayVatican
Decisions are yet to be announced, and they will be this week. But the amount of gossips, rumors, even the leaks anticipating the data of the balance sheet of the Institute for Religious Works (the so called “Vatican bank”) show that there had been a war behind these decisions. The roots of this war [...]
The new statute of the Vatican Financial Information Authority (AIF) better aligns the Authority with new Vatican legislation, and with international standards. It also develops a new kind of Authority. Conceived by the drafter of the first Vatican money laundering law as a sort of «monocratic» authority (a Vatican dicastery presided by a [...]
The most recent proposal floating is that of creating a Congregation for the Laity. After all – Cardinal Oscar Andrés Maradiaga has maintained – there is a Congregation for the Clergy and one for Bishops, but there is not one for the lay people, who are the biggest part of the Church. [...]
The confirmation of Gehrard Ludwig Mueller as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith can lead to the conclusion that Pope Francis is following the paths traced by Benedict XVI. But appearances can be deceiving. Pope Francis is putting the Church in a completely different path. If Benedict XVI was [...]
Pope Francis has started to form his team. And he has done so from the very top. As Secretary of State, Pope Francis has decided to appoint Pietro Parolin, an Italian hailing from Veneto and born in 1955, who until now was Papal Nuncio in Venezuela. He is an experienced diplomat whose career [...]
Those who know Pope Francis very well note that we are yet to see him at his best. They maintain that Pope Francis is a skilled «politician,» a man of great culture, even if up until now he has only shown the pastoral and – some would concede – populist aspects of his personality. [...]
A screening of the IOR accounts is “ongoing”, according to René Bruelhart, director of the Vatican Authority for Financial Information (AIF). Bruelhart also underlines that a reform of the oversight on Vatican finances is in process as well. One of the pillars of this reform will be preventive supervision – as requested by the [...]
It seems certain that Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone will remain Secretary of State until April 27. That is the day when new papal nuncio Ettore Balestrero – previously Undersecretary for Relations with States, heading to the important nunciature of Colombia– will be ordained bishops. In the past, the Pope himself would conduct these ordinations [...]
In his first meeting with ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, Pope Francis’ message focused on the poor. This is typical of him. «The heart of his message – explains Virginia Bonard, a journalist who works for the Bishops’ Conference of Argentina – is to shed light on the poor and on marginalized [...]
He won over the crowd from the very first moment he showed up from the balcony in the Blessings Lodge by simply saying «Buonasera». Then, he won over the sister Churches underlining no less than three times that he was (just) the «bishop of Rome» and never referring to himself as Pope. Finally, [...]
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