In a statement sent to journalists April 30, Holy See press officer Matteo Bruni said that in response to "some questions from journalists," he could confirm "that individual measures had been arranged for some employees of the Holy See, at the expiry of those adopted at the beginning of the investigation of financial and real estate investments of the Secretariat of State."

The release confirms that a months-long Vatican investigation is ongoing, which aims to dig into complicated financial transactions and investments made by officials at the secretariat over a period of years. Read more

In meeting the workers of the Ilva steel factory May 27, Pope Francis had asked for the questions in advance, so that he might better prepare his answers.

He touched on a range of topics, especially emphasizing that employment is not only a means of income, but an essential means of contributing to the common good.

He also spoke against competition in the workplace, criticizing "meritocracy" as a way of thinking that blames the poor as "undeserving."

Yet it was his comments on entrepreneurs and speculators that were most notable, in terms of understanding his broader economic thinking.

One of the questioners asked for a "word of support" for entrepreneurs. In reply, the Holy Father drew a distinction between "entrepreneurs" and "speculators," praising the "typical virtues" of the former.

"Creativity, love for one's own business, passion and pride for one's own work done with the hands and the intelligence and that of his workers," the Holy Father began, is important.

"There is no good economy without a good entrepreneur, without the ability to create work. In his words, one can feel the esteem he has for the city, for its economy, for the quality of the people, his workers and for the environment, the sea."

Pope Francis then drew a strong contrast with speculators:

"One of the illnesses of the economy is the progressive transformation of entrepreneurs into speculators. Entrepreneurs must never be confused with speculators; they are two different types.

"The speculator is a figure similar to what Jesus in the Gospel calls [a] ‘mercenary,' in opposition to the Good Shepherd. They see companies and workers only as means to profit: They use companies and workers to make profit; they do not love them.

"They don't consider laying off, shutting down and relocating the company a problem, because speculators use and exploit — eat people and means for their own profit.

"When good entrepreneurs inhabit the economy, then businesses are friendly to the people. When the economy is in the hands of speculators, everything is ruined. It becomes a faceless, abstract economy." Continue reading

Sources

• National Catholic Register article by Father Raymond J. De Souza, editor in chief of Convivium magazine.
• Image: Archdiocese of Baltimore

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, confirmed investigations were being carried out in the CDF, led by Cardinal Gerhard Müller

But the spokesman denied the cardinal's involvement in any wrong-doing.

"The superiors of the dicastery, especially Cardinal Müller . . . have absolutely nothing to do with the affair," Fr Lombardi said.

Germany's Bild newspaper claimed investigators carried out a raid at the CDF and confiscated 20,000 euros (US$21,976) in cash.

The funds had been paid by dioceses around the world for the investigation of sexual abuse cases.

The newspaper claimed the funds had been used by Cardinal Müller for private and business expenses.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Müller has said in an interview about "mercy" that Jesus did not "make cheap discounts on the truth".

Asked by the Catholic News Agency if one could be merciful and still correct doctrinal errors, the cardinal said "if a father doesn't correct his children, but justifies or minimises their mistakes, he wouldn't love them and would drive them to disaster".

"In the end, a father who doesn't help his children to recognise their mistakes doesn't really esteem them and doesn't have trust in their ability to change."

The cardinal also said: "Mercy is contrary to the laissez-faire . . . is this not God's attitude toward man: it is enough to read the Gospel and see how Jesus acted, who was good but at the same time didn't make cheap discounts on the truth."

Elsewhere in the interview, Cardinal Müller said "Mercy isn't just free-market loving each other".

"When God bursts into the life of man, in the measure of his acceptance, it tends to change also the way he looks at things, his attitude, the criteria of his actions and thus, by grace, also his behaviour."

Sources

• DW.com
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Voice of the Family

Paying or receiving interest on loans is forbidden in Islam.

Islamic loans involve various alternative ways for the borrower to repay the lender at a premium, while technically not charging interest.

Brian Henry, managing director of Amanah Ethical, said it was important to understand this did not mean customers got the money for nothing.

There are different ways for banks and financial institutions to offer home financing to Muslims.

In the UK, Al Rayan Bank, formerly Islamic Bank of Britain, offers products similar to hire purchase or let-to-buy plans.

UK bank Lloyds has a similar product where the bank buys the house for the customer, who then pays the purchase price in monthly instalments.

As the bank is the legal owner of the property, the customer also pays a monthly rent to the bank, which decreases as they buy the bank's share of the property.

Similar finance products, known as Murabaha, are used in the United States and Canada.

Amanah Ethical's scheme charges a "purification payment" to cleanse any investment income that might be generated though ways deemed haram in Islam, such as those related to alcohol, tobacco, gambling, weapons, pornography and nightclubs.

Henry said while there were only 43,000 Muslims in New Zealand at the time of the latest census, it was a "dream market".

New Zealand's growing migrant Muslim community was highly-educated and in good jobs, he said.

Previous attempts to offer forms of Islamic finance in New Zealand have failed.

In 2007 Christchurch lender Moorhouse Mortgages tried to get around the Sharia rules by offering a product which used a bond for the purchase of the house, and then a trust to buy the property on the buyer's behalf.

In 2009, subprime mortgage lender Argosy Property Finance, which brought the country its first Islamic mortgage, stopped making loans after its insurer pulled the plug.

An Auckland woman Sara Jawadi has been lobbying banks to provide an interest-free home loan product for Muslim customers.

Jawadi has contacted ANZ, BNZ, Westpac and Kiwibank with a proposal, but told Radio NZ none had responded.

Westpac and Kiwibank said they did not offer a specific Shari`ah-friendly product and did not have any plans to do so in the near future.

ANZ spokesman Stefan Herrick said demand for Islamic loans were "very low" and the bank did not offer a specific product catering to this community.

"However, we're always happy to talk to customers - Muslim or otherwise - about how we can help meet their needs."

Source

• onislam.net
• irannewstoday
• Stuff.co.nz
• Stuff.co.nz
• The Tribune
• Image: Radio New Zealand

Earlier this month, Cardinal Pell, who is prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, told media the Vatican had US$1.5 billion in assets that had not been previously accounted for.

German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who is president of the Vatican's Council of the Economy, expressed doubts as the wisdom of the revelation.

"Such figures are not very helpful and I personally am always reticent about quoting figures," Cardinal Marx told the German Catholic News Agency.

"Assets figures only make sense if I connect them to the obligations I have," he said.

The secretariat reports to the economic council, which is headed by Cardinal Marx.

The council has overarching responsibility for all the financial activity of the Holy See.

But Cardinal Marx admitted: "Up to now it was not usual and to a certain extent impossible to conduct a real overall budget which was up to international standards."

"That must change," he added.

Progress on reforms aimed at financial transparency at the Vatican was reported to cardinals who met earlier this month.

There was heated debate over proposed statutes for the council and the secretariat.

Some fear that too much power would be given to a "super-dicastery" headed by Cardinal Pell.

According to Vatican Insider, what is proposed contradicts the principal of real separation of oversight and operations as insisted on by the president of the Vatican Bank.

Concerns about the proposed statutes, raised by the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, were dismissed by Cardinal Pell,

He said an alternative set of statutes proposed by this body would have hamstrung reform efforts.

Vatican Insider pointed out that the pontifical council was asked to do this work by Pope Francis.

Before the meeting of cardinals, South African Cardinal Wilfred Fox Napier said the pontifical council went beyond its remit.

The Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples has been cited as one large Vatican agency that has been notably resistant to financial reforms.

Sources

• The Tablet
• Vatican Insider
• Catholic News Service
• Crux
• Image: Zimbio

The move by the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, an office of the Vatican's central bureaucracy, may represent the first such outside audit of the Vatican's coffers.

The office oversees the Vatican's property, providing cash flow to its bureaucracy, and manages the city-state's overall financial portfolio.

Continue reading

In its annual financial statement, the Holy See said better management had helped it recover from a loss of nearly $NZ25 million in the previous year.

But donations to the Peter's Pence collection, taken up worldwide for the support of the Holy See, declined by nearly 12 per cent to $NZ85.4 million.

Vatican City — which has its own city-state budget and profits from revenues of the Vatican Museums, post office and other attractions — showed a surplus of $NZ38 million, a slight increase on the previous year.

The board of the troubled Vatican Bank met on July 4 to consider the sudden resignation of its two top managers — who are now under investigation by Rome magistrates — and the arrest of Monsignor Nunzio Scarano on a money-smuggling charge.

A Reuters report said the bank's president, Ernst von Freyberg, told the meeting that a preliminary inquiry into Scaranio's activities had found "clear failings that should serve as stark reminder of the urgency of improving the [bank's] processes".

Scarano, 61, who worked as a senior accountant in the Vatican's financial administration and had close and regular contacts with the bank, was arrested along with an Italian secret service agent and a financial intermediary.

Reuters said Freyberg told the board that the bank would continue to improve internal procedures and review every account. "We will systematically identify and eradicate wrongdoing by clients of our institute," he said.

Meanwhile, the Financial Information Authority — a Vatican body established by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 to prevent money laundering and other illegal financial activities — announced that it had been admitted into the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units.

Membership gives access to a global network of financial intelligence units and facilitates the exchange of information in the fight against financial crime. It also represents recognition of the Holy See/Vatican City State's efforts in tracking and fighting money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Sources:

Vatican Radio

Reuters

Catholic News Service

Image: Prokerala News

"These buildings are simply too opulent, too empty and too expensive to maintain, something akin to an aging grandmother still living in a mansion when just one room would do," said a report on Spiegel Online.

There are churches standing empty even in staunchly Catholic Bavaria — the home of Pope Benedict XVI, the report said, and one has been closed even in the famous pilgrimage site of Telgte, near Münster, which has a shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The situation for Catholic churches is particularly bad in the Ruhr region of western Germany and in northern Germany, places that saw an influx of refugees from the former German lands of Silesia and East Prussia after the Second World War.

Now many of these regions' small Catholic churches, often built in an unappealing modern style, are at high risk of being demolished.

In Hildesheim diocese, one out of every two churches is on the endangered list, while in Essen diocese 83 churches are slated for demolition and another 13 have already been torn down. The situation is the worst in Wilhelmshaven, where six out of nine Catholic churches are slated to be destroyed.

The archdiocese of Berlin is offering for sale on eBay "a church in a popular residential area" in the city of Brandenburg, and websites have sprung up to market unwanted pulpits and altars.

Yet many church properties do not find a buyer. Most churches have cold floors and high ceilings, and lack kitchen facilities, so even give-away prices are often not enough of an incentive. The Maria Goretti Chapel in the small northeastern city of Demmin, for example, costs just $NZ31,500, but no one wants to buy it.

Thomas Begrich, head of finances for the Evangelical Church of Germany, the country's largest federation of Protestant churches, said it closed 340 churches between 1990 and 2010, and "it may be necessary to give up an additional 1000 buildings".

Source:

Spiegel Online

Image: Spiegel Online

The Holy See finances for 2011 recorded a deficit of 14.9 million euros ($NZ22.9 million). Its budget covers the Vatican Secretariat of State and its worldwide diplomatic missions, Vatican congregations and pontifical councils.

The Vatican blamed the poor outcome on high personnel and communications costs and adverse market conditions, particularly for its real estate holdings.

The deficit in the Holy See finances was in spite of a 50 million ($NZ70 million) gift from the Vatican Bank and increased donations from dioceses and religious orders.

The Peter's Pence Collection — used by the Pope for charitable and emergency works, but not included in the Vatican's budget — showed an increase, from $US67.7 million ($NZ84.8 million) in 2010 to $US69.7 million ($NZ87.3 million) in 2011.

The biggest contributions to this fund come from the United States, Germany and Italy.

Meanwhile, the autonomous Vatican City State, which employs nearly 1900 people, recorded a surplus of 21.8 million euros ($NZ33.5 million).

The bulk of its income in 2011 came from the Vatican Museums, where increased visitor numbers — more than five million in 2011 — were encouraged by extended opening hours.

Among the expensive items covered by the Holy See finances are the communications operations of Vatican Radio, the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano and Vatican television, which produce little or nothing in revenue.

Father Federico Lombardi, who runs the Vatican radio and television departments and is also the Vatican spokesman, said there are no plans to reduce the Holy See's 2832 staff, but that savings must come from elsewhere.

Sources:

Catholic News Service

Associated Press

Image: David Blackwell