I'm not sure what are the "just allegations."Ibanez wrote:I'm not a fan of Catholicism (I was born and raised Catholic, atteneded Catholic school K-12) but these are just allegations. The IOR has its history of scandel(1982?) but we have to look at each case differently. We all know D1b is baiting, he hears some Catholic did something, and he treats them like the Duke LAX team. Guilty before proven innocence (which he will never accept).
That some inside the bank were tied to bankruptcy fraud in 1982. True. Of course, no banking institution is ever completely free from scandal. Of note (or apparently not, since no reporter ever mentions), the Vatican Bank demonstrably did not involve itself with the creation, trading, insuring of asset-backed collateral or derivatives thereof, and scored no profits from these dirty investments which turned this world upside down. It is about the only sizable bank in the world with clean hands in that regard. Still waiting for the story on that.
Is the Vatican Bank secretive? Yes (although many of the reasons why it is secretive are pretty understandable, when rationally assessed). Should the Vatican Bank become more transparent in order to address post-9/11 international banking concerns? Yes. Are there people inside the Vatican resisting more transparency? Yes (although their motivations generally are not sinister). Might the Vatican be better off without the Vatican Bank? Debatable. It might seem more pure to do away with the Bank, although the divestiture of Vatican assets into accounts at numerous other financial institutions probably offers greater, not lesser, opportunity for scandal.
Is is true that Vatican Bank accounts are being used to launder money? Doubtful, and certainly not once instance has been proven.
The current "scandal" arises from an incident when funds in Vatican accounts at an Italian bank were frozen in 2010 due to an investigation into money laundering. The funds were unfrozen within a few days, but the incident underscored that present policies of the Vatican Bank do no comply with post-9/11 international banking norms instituted to prevent money laundering and the funneling of funds to terrorists. That doesn't mean, however, that money laundering has been occurring. It is amazing how facts get twisted beyond recognition any time you mention the Catholic Church.



