Pope hints at Vatican bank reform

Press, 26 November 1982, Page 8

Pope hints at Vatican bank reform

NZPA Rome Five months after the Vatican became enmeshed in the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, Pope John Paul has effectively broken his silence on the affair by saying that the Holy See must avoid

financial deals inappropriate to its special character. An exhaustive Papal statement issued yesterday made no direct mention of the Vatican bank, Istituto per le . Opere di Religione, or Ambrosiano. But it was clearly intended to sum up ; the ,;-i Pope’s deep disapproval of the episode. “The Holy See . . . cannot develop .the economic activ- i

ity of a State. The production of economic wealth and the development of income is excluded,” he said. The Church’s income should : be provided overwhelmingly through contributions from the world’s Catholics. The Vatican should avoid “means (of getting money) which , could appear less respectful of its special character.” / Vatican sources said that the statement was plainly intended to assert the unique spiritual' character of the Vatican State and distance it from affairs as temporal as the scandal-ridden collapse of Italy’s biggest private

bank. The extent of the role of the 1.0. R. in the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano is still disputed, and the Vatican has insisted that it is in no way responsible. But nobody disputes that the Holy See’s image has been sullied by allegations from the Italian Government that it owes $1.3 billion of the bank’s debts through letters of patronage issued by the 1.0.R.’s president, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus.

The letters, whose existence is not contested, helped the late chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, Roberto Calvi, to raise loans for shadowy

offshore companies based in Panama which could not repay them. The sources said that the Pope’s .'Statement amounted to an acknowledgement that there might have been errors of judgment in the conduct of the Vatican’s finances and

a commitment to reform and discipline this activity in future. The declaration issued in the form of a letter to the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, emphasised that the Vatican was “not a. typical State.” “There must be faith in divine providence . . . which will grant the means for the

Holy See to pursue its goals,” he said. Money should be used sparingly and essentially in the; furtherance .of the Church’s spiritual role, he said, citing missionary activity and charitable work as important examples of the Holy See’s true vocation. . “We must avoid waste, the pursuit of particular interests and unjustified privilege, promoting good human relations in every area, and

the just and true interests of the Holy See,” he said. The sources said that the statement looked like the Pope’s summing-up of the lessons from Ambrosiano

and might signal a sweeping reform of 1.0. R.

Under Archbishop Marcinkus, director of 1.0. R. for 11 years, it has made speculative use of Vatican funds in a bid ’ to; increase Church wealth. In Ambrosiano alone, 1.0. R. was officially credited with a 1.6 per cent stake, although a former top Ambrosiano official said yesterday, that it held 16 per cent. This would probably now end, the sources said, and the 1.0. R. be accorded a much more limited role, restricted to holding funds and transferring them to ecclesiastical bodies in the many countries where the Catholic Church is active.