The temporary selection of a prelate for the so-called Vatican Bank
shows Pope Francis is waiting for the advice of the cardinals he tapped
as advisors before deciding the fate of the financial institute,
according to a source in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.
The appointment of the prelate “must not be charged too much with
expectations of a reform.
The Pope needed to fill a post and wanted to
give a signal that he really cares about the IOR issue, but he also
showed the sensibility to make an ‘ad interim’ appointment, presumably
waiting for the cardinals’ suggestions,” the anonymous State Secretariat
source said June 15.
Monsignor Battista Ricca was appointed as prelate for the Institute for
Works of Religion, also known by its Italian initials IOR, on June 15.
The prelate serves as a liaison between the cardinals’ oversight
commission – composed of five cardinals and traditionally presided over
by the Secretary of State – and the council of superintendents, which is
made up of five laymen who are bankers or financial experts.
The institute is headquartered inside Vatican City and is entrusted with
safeguarding and administering property or funds that are designated by
clients to benefit religious works or charities.
The commission of cardinals typically chooses the candidate for the prelate position without the Pope’s formal approval.
But Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office took
the unusual step of saying in his June 15 announcement that the
appointment was made with the “approval of the Holy Father.”
According to the prominent Italian Vatican expert Sandro Magister, this
would mean “it is a prelate of the Pope, more than of the IOR.”
Actually, the prelate post remained vacant since 2010, when the previous
prelate, then-Monsignor Piero Pioppo, was appointed papal nuncio to
Cameroon and Guinea.
The secretary of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Msgr. Pioppo, received his
appointment as prelate for the institute while his boss chaired its
oversight commission. At that time, it had already been announced that
Cardinal Sodano would leave the post in a few months and be replaced by
Cardinal Bertone, the current Secretary of State.
By appointing his secretary, “Sodano kept the institute under his
shadow,” said Gianfranco Svidercoschi, the former vice director of the
Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, in a June 17 conversation with
CNA.
Before Msgr. Pioppo’s appointment in 2006, the post of prelate was
vacant since 1993, when Monsignor Donato de Bonis was made a bishop and
no replacement was named.
A monsignor who works in the Vatican’s Curia and requested anonymity
explained June 15 that Pope Francis decided to make sure the prelate
post was filled to “show his resolution to solve the case” and because
“too many rumors had been circulating” about the Institute for Works of
Religion.
The new prelate, Msgr. Battista Ricca, is a Vatican diplomat who works
in the Second Section of the Secretariat of State and also manages a set
of religious houses, including St. Martha’s House, where Pope Francis
has decided to live.
Msgr. Ricca and Pope Francis are also friends and reportedly have lunch
together every day, making it significant that the Holy Father moved
ahead with the appointment, disregarding any chatter about him promoting
his friends.
In Svidercoschi’s view, “this proves his will to govern without any external or internal interference.”
Given that the appointment of Msgr. Ricca is temporary, the next moment
for assessing Pope Francis’ plan for reforming the Curia will likely be
the Oct. 2-4 meeting of the eight cardinals who will advise the pontiff.
They will probably also counsel the Pope on reforming the Institute for
Works of Religion, but whether or not this will lead to a complete
overhaul remains to be seen.
According to Sandro Magister, that the appointment is “ad interim”
proves that “a big reform for the IOR is coming up or at least will be
discussed.”
But an even bigger signal that financial reform will continue at the Vatican has already been sent.
This past April 10, the Vatican said it will report on its progress in
responding to the Key and Core areas of recommended changes that the
European Council’s financial oversight committee, Moneyval, said it
should make. The committee had asked only for an update on the core
areas.
The recommendations were the result of a voluntary evaluation that
Moneyval carried out to help the Vatican comply with international
standards on preventing money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
In a June 17 follow-up interview, the same Secretariat of State source
said, this fact alone “lets us presume that the whole Vatican financial
system will be reformed.”
If that reading is correct, the cardinals “might suggest to reform,
change or even to abolish the IOR,” the source added, but the financial
institute will always have to fulfill the requirements of the Vatican’s
oversight financial system.