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PDF versionFacing financial scandals, pope creates new Vatican watchdog
by John L Allen Jr on Dec. 30, 2010
New law also criminalizes environmental pollution
Against a backdrop of criminal probes related to alleged financial misconduct both in the Vatican Bank and at the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the Vatican’s wealthy missionary department better known as “Propaganda Fide”, Pope Benedict XVI today created a new in-house watchdog to promote compliance with international rules against financing terrorism, money-laundering, insider trading and market abuse.
The move amounts to a potential sea change for the Vatican, where traditionally the various departments have been largely autonomous in their financial dealings, with only a loose coordination provided by the office of the Apostolic Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA). By pledging cooperation with international monitoring agencies, the new laws also mark a break with the Vatican’s traditional reluctance to open up its internal financial operations to outside scrutiny.
The Vatican spokesperson, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, today described the new laws as “a step towards transparency and credibility” with “far-reaching moral and pastoral significance.”
This morning, the Vatican announced that Benedict has created a new department called the “Authority of Financial Information,” with the power to supervise all Vatican transactions, including those of both the Vatican Bank and Propaganda Fide.
The move comes as part of a package of four new laws designed to combat money-laundering and counterfeiting, the most complex of which is a “Law Concerning Prevention and Combating the Laundering of Revenue from Criminal Activity and the Financing of Terrorism,” elaborated in 43 articles. It specifies that the new Authority of Financial Information will have “full autonomy and independence,” including the right to examine the books of all Vatican departments.
In part, the law is designed to implement an agreement between the Vatican and the European Commission on fighting money-laundering signed in December 2009. In September, the Vatican also said it’s in talks with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development about getting on the Paris-based group’s so-called White List of nations that comply with global norms on financial transparency.
The new law establishes criminal penalties for violation of financial norms, including four to twelve years in prison and fines of almost $20,000. (Typically, enforcement of criminal laws at the Vatican, such as those against pickpocketing, is entrusted to the Italian penal system.)
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The new law is to take effect on April 1, 2011.
Benedict’s new laws come amid the backdrop of two financial scandals that erupted in 2010, both of which are the subject of on-going civil investigations in Italy.
One is related to suspicions that the former prefect of Propaganda Fide, Naples Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, gave sweetheart deals on Roman apartments owned by the congregation to Italian politicians in exchange for millions of Euros in public funds for construction and restoration, in some cases for work that was never completed.
The other is focused on the Vatican Bank, where some $30 million in assets was seized by civil authorities earlier this year for violations of European anti-money laundering laws.
An Italian judge recently ruled that those assets should remain frozen, and a November brief filed by prosecutors asserted that while the bank has expressed a “generic will” to conform to international standards, “there is no sign that the institutions of the Catholic church are moving in that direction.”
Today’s package of new laws is, in part, designed to combat those impressions.
One intriguing footnote: In addition to creating new penalties for financial misconduct, Benedict XVI has also criminalized environmental pollution.
In article 18, the new law establishes a penalty of up to six months imprisonment and a fine of $3,500 to $35,000 for anyone who pollutes the soil or water, and establishes the same penalties for polluting the atmosphere. The jail term rises to a year, and the fines range from $7,000 to $70,000, if the pollution occurs with hazardous substances.
Benedict's environmental teaching and activism, including the installation of solar panels both at the Vatican's audience hall and his private home in Regensburg, Germany, have already earned the pontiff the nickname the "Green Pope."
Excellent! Now for the
Excellent! Now for the National Catholic Reporter, both the newspaper business and its non-profit foundation, to similarly open up their finances to public scrutiny. Show us how it's done, why don't ya?
Perhaps SNAP could do the
Perhaps SNAP could do the same.
What makes you and Anonymous
What makes you and Anonymous below think that these are not already in the public domain?
Ecclesial Priorities The
Ecclesial Priorities
The Vatican has announced new rules
to make its financial dealings more transparent
and bring it into line with international legislation
designed to prevent money-laundering.
The move came after an Italian court froze the Vatican's money over claims that its bankers were trying to move cash across international borders without identifying its source, destination or purpose.
They include the creation of a new compliance authority
and the introduction of legislation to combat money laundering
and the financing of terrorism.
This begs the question:
For those who were raped and sodomized by priests
and whose abuse was concealed
by the bishops the Church selects, appoints, and keeps in power,
bishops who moved priests from town to town, state to state, country to country shielding them and allowing them to continue to abuse,
Where is the swift and deliberate action of reparation or resolution of the crisis?
When the thawing of money is involved, we hear no voices that
reform in the Church take time,
the machinery grinds slowly,
the deliberations are snail paced,
there are so many factors to be considered,
and there should be no expectation that will change in our respective lifetimes.
As Scripture says,
Where your treasure is, so your heart will also be.
John Chuchman on Dec. 30,
John Chuchman on Dec. 30, 2010.
You stated:
"Ecclesial Priorities
The Vatican has announced new rules
to make its financial dealings more transparent
and bring it into line with international legislation
designed to prevent money-laundering.
The move came after an Italian court froze the Vatican's money over claims that its bankers were trying to move cash across international borders without identifying its source, destination or purpose.
They include the creation of a new compliance authority
and the introduction of legislation to combat money laundering
and the financing of terrorism.
This begs the question:
For those who were raped and sodomized by priests
and whose abuse was concealed
by the bishops the Church selects, appoints, and keeps in power,
bishops who moved priests from town to town, state to state, country to country shielding them and allowing them to continue to abuse,
Where is the swift and deliberate action of reparation or resolution of the crisis?
When the thawing of money is involved, we hear no voices that
reform in the Church take time,
the machinery grinds slowly,
the deliberations are snail paced,
there are so many factors to be considered,
and there should be no expectation that will change in our respective lifetimes.
As Scripture says,
Where your treasure is, so your heart will also be."
------------------------------------
Thank you, John. You hit the nail on the head. When the official Church wants to move (or has to), it knows how to do so. But with other issues---the Vatican moves slower than Methuselah on his last day of life.
The Vatican acted exactly one
The Vatican acted exactly one day before the European Union ultimatum expired on 31st December 2010. The Vatican had no choice but to act which they did at the last possible moment.
Yes. Yes. And again, yes.
Yes. Yes. And again, yes.
Good Vatican PR.
Good Vatican PR.
I am disabled and live on a
I am disabled and live on a government stipend that brings me in well under the official poverty level in Canada. I don't think that a day goes by that I am not grateful for the generous one bedroom apartment I occupy in a complex with many 'seniors' Warm with lots of hot water I am one of the fortunate who can live where there is a humane social contract. Since I'm ill one of the few things I do is to pick up litter on my walks by the beautiful bay here north of Toronto. The litter has many 'signatures' including, McDonald's, burger king, tim horton (great coffee) and they'll even provide an extra cup gratis. Of course Coca-cola is one of my favorites and Nestle too. Aren't' these the corporate animals that are buying up the water rites of indigenous peoples and then selling the water back to the peons. Anyway, bravo 'papa' Ratzinger. What a wonderful holiday gift for the world. May this overture herald a symphony of healing and repair for our poor earth. There's lots of work to do for the Lord and I'm on my way for a daily walk to pick up the corporate trash and have a visit with my elderly mother who tends her vegetables and flowers and instructs us in matters of deep concern. My grandfather was shot in Siberia. I will be on my way now feeling a little challeur in my heart. The Pope is green!
Like the sex abuse scandal,
Like the sex abuse scandal, the Vatican's response to its long sanctioned questionable banking practices comes woefully late. Are we asking too much for Rome to come clean on the previous Vatican bank scandal?
Tell us the truth about Archbishop Marcinkus and how he avoided any prosecution and was allowed to live out his days in luxury in Sun City, Arizona, brushing off critics and investigators with claims of diplomatic immunity. What about Roberto Calvi's death in London, that in fact was ruled to be murder and not suicide? How much did they know, who knew and who complied in the cover up? What connection, if any, was there to the sudden and totally unexpected death of John Paul I? Why was there no autopsy and contrary to papal burial practice why was he embalmed? What, if any, Opus Dei connections are there in these Vatican financial crimes?
This latest story is nothing new, but another chapter in a long sordid epic. The truth is far more fascinating than anything a Dan Brown could come up with.
Oh, this is rich: "The truth
Oh, this is rich: "The truth is far more fascinating than anything a Dan Brown could come up with."
Hello? Dan Brown is a fiction writer! How does a serious person put "Truth" and "Dan Brown" in the same sentence?
Ha-ha-ha-ha! Sadly, in some minds, the gray boundary between the Real and the Fantastic just keeps getting fuzzier and fuzzier, doesn't it?
Dear mah51, there is no
Dear mah51, there is no longer a "gray boundary between the Real and the Fantastic". If we can accept the dictum that war makes peace and might makes right than we are way, way past any kind of differentiation between Real and Fantastic. It's closer to to fact that truth-of-our-days trumps plots strung out by novelists (and other story-tellers).
Yes Lorenzo-N. Many
Yes Lorenzo-N. Many questions unanswered there.
Utterly amazing how swiftly
Utterly amazing how swiftly the Vatican can act when the situation involves money and their own financial interests. And yet, in the matter of the abuse of children by priests, their response can best be described as "proceeding by the quarter-inch", kicking and screaming all the way.
I very distinctly remember
I very distinctly remember Fr. David Cozzens, during a talk in Tucson, AZ around 2005/6 on the still emerging sex scandal, said that the next upcoming church scandal would be financial.
It's here, it's emerging, it's gonna be humongous because there is zero accountability to anyone who gives $$ to the Church at any level.
Mr. Allen writes that nthe
Mr. Allen writes that nthe Vatican has created a "new in-house watchdog to promote compliance with international rules against financing terrorism, money-laundering, insider trading and market abuse" and the "move amounts to a potential sea change for the Vatican. "
The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) asks a simple question: Where is the Vatican's Love: For the Money or the Children?
The Vatican took these action quickly after its money was frozen in September 2010.
This story begs the question: For those who were raped and sodomized by priests and whose abuse was concealed by the bishops the Church selects, appoints, and keeps in power, bishops who moved priests from town to town, state to state, country to country shielding them and allowing them to continue to abuse, where is the swift and deliberate action of reparation or resolution of this crisis?
Ah, but when the thawing of money is involved, we hear no voices that reform in the Church take time, the machinery grinds slowly, the deliberations are snail paced, or the Church must worry for the benefit of the whole Church about how it treated by individual civil governments.
As the Scripture tells us, where your treasure is, so you heart will also be.
Too bad this was not done in
Too bad this was not done in the 20th century. The money that the Vatican Bank has is from donations the faithful make for charities. I am sickened to realize that my donations went into money laundering for organized crime. I am apprehensive that the new decrees are window dressing without much internal change. The culture of secrecy is pervasive in the 110 acre pseudo state. Do we really need a Holy See as Vatican City is called?
it sounds like the fox will
it sounds like the fox will be guarding the henhouse...
It's about time! After more
It's about time! After more than thirty-five years of money mismanagement beginning with the notorious dealings of Paul Marcinkas et alibi(the Mafia), the Vatican is finally complying with the law. Talk about scandals- here is the world's largest organization purporting to be the moral leader failing at the basic levels. Is it no wonder that the people of God question their allegiance to this organization?
There are laws & then there
There are laws & then there is the enforcement of laws, as we have seen how Canon Law was routinely ignored by the church in dealing with criminal sexual abuse of kids in the 2d half of the 20th Century and into the 21st. I hope the date picked for implementation is not symbolic.
Why is Propaganda Fide "the
Why is Propaganda Fide "the Vatican's wealthy missionary department"? I can think of many ways to share the wealth...
$30 Million?????
Where are these "criminals" going to be imprisoned?
Kathlyn Myers
How sad that such action
How sad that such action needed to be taken in "OUR" Church.
Of course, we have known for years of the dishonesty that has been going
on in the Vatican Bank. Is this, too "AN AMERICAN THING" ???
Are we, the laity, going to be asked again, to Pray and do Penance and
beg God's forgiveness for the more "FILTH" over which we had so little,
if any, control. What we need in the U.S.A. Church,is another Henry VIII...
Are there any more Martin Luthers' out there or Cardinals with the "guts"
Of Joseph Bernadine? My only hope, is knowing Jesus is on our side.
Jesus IS on our side :-)
Jesus IS on our side :-)
"Are there any more Martin
"Are there any more Martin Luthers' out there . . ."
There's one in my novel. She is Russian and her name is Maria Martinovna Luderenko. Her father's name was Martin Luder; thus, her middle name (as prescribed by Russian custom)is Martinovna. Martin Luder was Martin Luther's birth name; he changed it when he was a young man. "enko" is a common ending for Ukranians. Thus, Maria Martinovna Luderenko (with Ukranian heritage but born in Russia) has Martin Luther's name embedded in her name.
In my novel, THE MICHELANGELO DECEPTION, the protagonist--Maria Martinovna Luderenko--is, of course fiction, but her findings with regard the deceptions found in the Last Judgment are real. In her search for an answer to a voice from heaven--during a near-death experience, which said, "you must return to your body . . . you are God's messenger,"--she finds the great artist's collosal trick that he played on the pope. I repeat . . . the deceptions are real.
They have remained hidden for almost 500 years . . . until now. The message he left for posterity (since it wasn't discovered during his lifetime) is that there will be no "last judgment" because there is no need for one because God is not a judgmental God who would send his divine creations to hell for eternity for perceived disobediences dreamed up by ignorant and power-hungry men.
But she found out a lot more than that about Michelangelo and why he loathed the popes he served for nearly all of his long life of 89 years.
The profligacy of the papacy and corruption of the Church and the religion they had created by distorting Jesus' message of love and compassion seems to have continued for nearly 500 years after Michelangelo's death.
As others have noted in related comments, the financial scandal didn't start in September of this year; it goes back at least as far as the Reformation, which prompted Martin Luther to do what he did; he didn't like the selling of indulgences to finance the construction of St. Peter's Basilica.
In her research, Maria discovered Paul William's book published in 2003. . . THE VATICAN EXPOSED: Money, Murder and the Mafia. Here are a couple quotations Maria Luderenko included in the thesis she wrote as a part of her search for an answer to her dilema: What does being God's Messenger mean and what is the message?
Here are two quotations taken from my novel:
QUOTATION # 1: Paul Williams’, THE VATICAN EXPOSED: Money, Murder, and the Mafia, (2003)
The back flap of the dustcover states the following: “Based on his years as a consultant for the FBI, Williams produces explosive and never-before-published evidence of the Church’s morally questionable financial dealings with sinister organizations: over seven decades! He examines the means by which the Vatican accrued enormous wealth during the Great Depression by investing in Mussolini’s government; the connection between Nazi gold and the Vatican Bank; the vast range of Church holdings in the postwar boom period; Pope Paul VI’s reliance on reputed international Mafia chieftain Michele Sindona as the Vatican banker; a billion-dollar counterfeit stock fraud uncovered by Interpol and the FBI; the “Ambrosiani affair,” called “the greatest financial scandal of the twentieth century” by the New York Times: the mysterious death of Pope John Paul I; most recently, profits from an international drug ring operating out of Gdansk, Poland; and much more.”
QUOTATION # 2: Paul Williams’, The VATICAN EXPOSED: Money, Murder and the Mafia (2003)
Williams’ concluding remarks about his book state: “The accounts in these pages are not exaggerations and have not been subjected to editorial amplification for popular consumption. They are matters of recorded history. They have been captured on camera and kept as evidence in crime labs, police files, and even Holocaust museums. They have been documented by leading historians and journalists, such as Richard Hammer, David Yallop, Claire Sterling, Nick Tosches, and John Cornwell. They have been broadcast by reporters and news commentators throughout the world even though the matter has not captured the major attention of the media. Such matters cannot be treated as matters of no substance or importance. They have impacted all aspects of life—moral, spiritual, political, and economic—at the turn of the twenty-first century.”
Maria, God's messenger, puts her findings in a Masters Thesis and delivers it to the Vatican for the pope to read. The pope is Pope Immanuel, an African-American reformist, who was elected pope about the same time as our current real Pope Benedict XVI.
By the time Maria delivers her thesis, the Pope has shaken up the Vatican bureaucracy to the point where the conservative cardinals and their Mafia cohorts become so worried about what the pope might do about the state of Vatican affairs--especially the Bank--that they form a cabal to remove Pope Immanuel from St. Peter's Chair. Things go south from there as Maria's and the pope's lives are threatened. What the pope decides after he reads Maria's thesis, rocks the world.
It seems the real world (with the pederasty scandals and revelations about Michelangelo's deceptions in my novel, in Blech and Doliner's book "SISTINE SECRETS", the PBS Video "MICHELANGELO REVEALED")is beginning to sway . . . if not nock.
That is not such a bad hope,
That is not such a bad hope, my friend.
Happy New Year from Gabriel.
Deo Gracias
Deo Gracias
So who will this watchdog be?
So who will this watchdog be? Another high-ranking member of the good old boys club with ties to most of the actual and potential miscreants? Or will B16 actually get serious about this and have a high integrity, high profile, financially savvy layperson in charge with wide-ranging and effective powers of enforcement and penalty levying?
Wanna bet?
Maybe he is coming out of the
Maybe he is coming out of the shadow of John Paul II. The pope almost is becoming a sympathetic figure, for all the deep doo-doo he inherited.
Sweethart deals on Rome
Sweethart deals on Rome apartments in exchange for "construction" money that was never used for construction? Hmmmm, I wonder what that money was used for?
Pardon me, but I hate the
Pardon me, but I hate the people who come on here with their fake sympathy for sex abuse victims because they want to bash the church.
"hate", "fake", "because they
"hate", "fake", "because they want to".... These are pretty harsh words. They also smack of judgment without reasons. We all get emotional in reading some irrational statements but it seems to me that's all the reason for us not to get caught up in the same current.
That should be "propaganda
That should be "propaganda fidei," not "propaganda fide."
The new laws do NOT "open up
The new laws do NOT "open up its internal financial operations to outside scrutiny." In addition, Allen disregarded the fact that the 30 million was seized from outside-the-Vatican bank accounts. I agree with "fox guarding the hen house" analogy.
As always they ( pope &
As always they ( pope & vatican) only agree to conform when they are CAUGHT , why does the 'vatican need a bank ? they already have 'sovereign immunity !
"INHOUSE WATCHDOG"??????? do
"INHOUSE WATCHDOG"???????
do they really think we are stupid enough to believe that this is a genuine attempt to clean house and do the right thing?
This is like trusting THEM to rid their churches of child rapist priests and their enablers..
Sounds like just another SMOKE SCREEN
Is this not supposed to be a
Is this not supposed to be a Catholic website?
Let us all pray for Pope
Let us all pray for Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church in 2011.
Deo Gratias,"Vive`Il
Deo Gratias,"Vive`Il Papa"Told you so!"I am with you always". Once again doubts amongst us are banished to Hell."What is needed is trust,fear is useless".Pro Deo et Patria/Knights of Malta and Rhoades.And you thought God wasn`t there or wasn`t watching."Lord what fools these mortals be".Military Deacon and soldier.
It was only a month after
It was only a month after seemingly healthy and vigorous John Paul I announced that he was going to reform the Vatican Bank that this newly elected Pope was found dead in his apartment of unexplained causes. There was no explanation and certainly no postmortem exam. I was in Italy at the time and many on the street believed he had been poisoned by the Southern European Mafia. Conspiratorial? Maybe, but there have been several murders and suicides involving those who worked directly for the Vatican Bank or Banco Ambrosiano which was a Vatican Bank controlled institution. There certainly have been assassinations of Popes and presidents for reasons involving money and wealthy people through the ages.
The issue of the Vatican Bank was never mentioned during the reign of JP II, and like the Church continued sex crisis, these new regulations are only in response to the Press coverage of this emerging scandal does not bide well that this leadership truly wants a chance at better governage. Will Pope Benedict choose to treat MONEY in the Church Institutions with any more openness than he has the sex crisis. Like Rome has protected Bishops who passed on pedophiles from parish to parish and diocese to diocese, I can only think this Bishop of Rome will attempt to protect and hide facts about his closest associates. I predict time will show that any clarity from the Vatican will only be forthcoming from pressures from without not within this authoritarian regime.
If this is truly a step in good governance for the Vatican, perhaps Benedict has personal safety concerns to deal with. Most likely, any new rule or "law" to be put in place has enough loopholes for Vatican cronies to drive through a MAC Truck. Perhaps I am too cynical. Indeed, I hope it is the case and that this will be real reform that will continue well beyond the reign of the current Bishop of Rome, yet the odds are against anything but cynicism.
I note the slightly more
I note the slightly more responsive attitude of the Vatican to correct finance related problems than the moral and justice problems raised by the ongoing revelations re clerical sexual abuse, especially of children. I suggest that the responsiveness is due to two things - money is more important than almost anything else, and pressure from EU authorities.
Nevertheless, these revelations of financial irregularities are important and reflect similar experience at other levels in the church - consider how many situations have been noted where church moneys were misused.
I, for one, have told my parish that the parish will not get one single further dollar from me unless and until I see credible audited financial statements that show all transactions at least at parish and diocesan level, including the costs of insurance against sexual abuse claims and the costs incurred against those claims - both in defenses and in reparations. (I prefer the word reparation rather than the term used in my archdiocese "ex gratia compensation.") The day I see that information published, my donations, which are currently directed elsewhere, will return.
Until more parishioners take similar action, I suggest we'll see little change in the hierachy's attitudes and actions.
"We are not without Hope."(My
"We are not without Hope."(My copy of todays Divine Office Readings.)and we never will be again.Mary my Hope.Vive`Il Papa.(U.S.Military Colonel,Knights of Malta and Rhoades"Pro Deo et Patria"relegated Deacon,Profane Orders, Russian Orthodox Communion by Papal Bul)..The Lord restored the fortunes of Abraham and Joab,will we be any more excluded?This headline on Vatican real reform is a step in the right direction.The Holy Father is mending fences and using that Jesuit education to accomplish what sounds like the miraculos.This comment coming from another child altar boy survivor, who came close to losing faith in Rome as a source of the true Gospel.Mea Culpa.Deo Gratia."Surely this man was the Son of God".(Like another old soldier/Centurian a long time ago.)Just when some of us thought it was all over.How foolish,how nearly tragic.Have you suffered all these things in vain?The answer in vulgar soldiery but truly Christian reply is Hell NO!!Amen.Commissioned to preach the Gospel and dispense Charity,in imitatation of a Vatican that still does likewise.Long live the Pope!
It is so sad to see all of
It is so sad to see all of these armchair critics find a flaw in any positive move. This is a good decision and a needed one. If this law was not implimented all of these who criticize the decision as too late, inadequate etc would bemoan inaction. At least have the honesty and integrity in noting positive moves and not using every decision as a bandwagon for vitriolic diatribes.
Some things: 1)No one is more
Some things: 1)No one is more of an "armchair critic" than anyone else here, including yourself. This is evidence we all take serious our role as Church, the People of God, including yourself. It's OK if we disagree. It's been done since the beginning of christianity. 2)You mentioned implementation of the law; you are mistaken. The law has only been proclaimed; it will be implemented in the future, in the spring of 2011 to be exact (and then there is the question of what and how to implement which will forestall it some more, etc.) 3)You are most correct in noting that many people engage in "bandwagon" tactics of "vitriolic diatribes" but just not one-sidedly.
And, another series of events
And, another series of events and actions by the Vatican that should absolutely NEVER occur. And that we, the faithful, should never have to swallow in disgust, realizing that the Vatican, hierarchs and clerics are nothing more than very ordinary petty thieves, major criminals or slaves besotted by their sexual proclivities and abhorrent failures. Once more our senses and our sensitivities are assaulted, and insulted, by the Vatican we once trusted so much.
On an almost daily basis I have to remind myself that God Is NOT the problem the Vatican IS very much, the problem and the entire problem. Also the people of the church are not the problem, yet again the Vatican is the problem, the entire problem!!!
The solution is obvious and easy!!! We can learn from our Protestant brethren. IF the Vatican adopted their style of management or some variation thereof, these disgusting behaviors would never occur. Iow, the priests would continue to be the preachers and teachers of each individual parish and make a board of elders of each parish responsible for everything else. Both parties would be responsible to the local bishop. That way the priests would have far less strain. And they would also be somewhat under the watchful eyes of the board of elders, the body of the faithful. The board of Elders would be responsible for the parish plant and finances, AND would/could keep an eye on the "behaviors" of the parish priest. In matters of "faith and morals' the priest would be totally responsible and the final word/control would be the bishop.
It is an easy, simple and elegant solution! And yet,it allows the bishop to retain full control and be the final arbiter over every thing.
Almost all of us on this forum, except for the right wing fundie Catholics, believe that the body of the church, the people, are as important as the clerics and prelates. Without the faithful there is NO church, it loses it's purpose. A balance of rule between the hierarchy and the faithful is or should be the norm not the exception or the rarity!!!
On a side note: the right wing fundie Catholics always like to be "taken care" of by the hierarchy--a kind of Trickle-down theology like their cherished Trickle-down economics!!! They choose to not take either personal responsibility or group responsibility for their own selves and their own actions. Cause and effect men nothing to them. They cause the problem, then choose to not take responsibility for the enormous collateral damage that occurs because they caused it! As in--all the death and abortions that occurred by the Iraq and Afghani wars. But that's another issue.
AND--Yes I believe that the Vatican is the gayest place on earth. So they need watching for their own good and even more importantly for the good, the cleansing and the continuation of Holy Mother Church!!! The church of the people,all people, as in: go ye therefore, and make disciples of all nations. the faithful bring a balance and a humanizing quality and a wholeness to The Church.
And further: I would neither doubt nor be surprised that we, the faithful are in for ever more sex scandals and ever more financial scandals and ever more political scandals(when Jeb Bush, the war like Neocon) becomes preznut, and ever more hierarchical scandals, and ever more closings with our dioceses.
On a side note: 40% to 2/3rds of our local parishes are closing, this year. The bishop said it was due to the lack of parishioners,lack of priests and the lack of money. Could that be due to the St.Reagan/Friedman/GOP/Hannity/O'Reilly/Beck/Limpball/Ingraham/ Malkin/Bozell/Weigel/Steele/ Keyes, Buchanan, Noonan, Van Susteren, Cavuto, Scalia and his SCOTUS etc,et.al,ad nauseam) Trickle-down economic mess that surely is causing even more church closings AND even more abortions as poverty always does, as poverty is, by far, the number one cause of abortions. NOT Dems, Liberals or Libertarians. Not the New York Times, Vatican II or the Protestants or the Jews or the Muslims not even American Muslims.
I can't even begin to think why would Jesus ever want to come again(The Second Coming)when even His church CANNOT follow His teachings(peace, love, tolerance or "Do unto others...) or the laws of God the Father, the Ten Commandments. Especially: "Thou shalt not kill", not steal, not covet and not bear false witness.
I think we'll all be watching for the up-coming church/Vatican financial scandals. AND the up-coming election of Jeb Bush to the presidency. The "fun" will begin, anew or yet again!!! "Thou shalt not bear false witness, "Thou shalt not kill, covet or steal will also begin anew!
Amen.
A blessed,happy and,above all-- a safe New Years to all of you.
bob
Money laundering, now that is
Money laundering, now that is interesting. Seeing as how the Legionaries of Christ were a gigantic money raising operation, I wonder if they used the Vatican Bank as part of their scheme?
I find it interesting that no
I find it interesting that no one above me in this queue mentioned something said by spokesperson Federico Lombardi, SJ that I found to be at the heart of the thing. He was quoted as saying these laws can have "far reaching moral and pastoral significance." I'd love to read what he implied here: 1)How "far reaching"? 2)For whom? 3)Moral - what is meant by this? 4)Pastoral - How? For whom? Why? By whose authority? etc., etc. It's a case of raising more questions than were answered by the spokesperson.
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