The enthusiasm of some for the Synodal Way is one side of the way all human societies make deliberate change. Likewise, the fears of Cardinal Walter Kasper and some other bishops are exactly what we should expect.

If we could see the future clearly, then it would be different - but no one has a crystal ball. The future always contains surprises. Some of these will be more wonderful than anyone has imagined; other will be worse than our greatest fears. That is simply the way it is!

One might imagine that it would be different with the Church - the Body of the Christ animated by the Spirit - and it has been the illusion of some Christians in every age that because they "had the faith" or "the Bible" or the "gift of magisterium" that their steps into the future were guaranteed!

Alas, we are always engaged in a process of discernment: we pray for the light of the Holy Spirit and we then try to glimpse the way forward. We walk forward by faith. The Church's prayer is always that "by the light of the Spirit we may be truly wise and enjoy his consolation" (da nobis in … Spiritu recta sapere, et de eius semper consolation gaudere).

Wrong signals

If we cannot now know the outcomes of our decisions, what we might suspect, with Cardinal Kasper, will be a disaster. But it may turn out completely the opposite - and vice versa - so we can exercise some foreknowledge with regard to the signals our actions send out in the present.

Right now, I can know that something is being wrongly interpreted or wrongly used. What will happen tomorrow is, in an absolute sense, unknown; but what is faulty now can be known through an examination of evidence that has been building up for some time and is available to us. This is where we can take definite action for the better.

This is such a basic element of our thinking that we tend to ignore it and spend our time in more distant - and so imprecise - speculation.

We can easily illustrate this: will there be a fire in the house or will it be OK? I simply do not know, and I hedge my bets by having house insurance. Contrast that with the definite event that I smell smoke and hear the fire alarm now, right now. In this case, I do not speculate but act: I call the fire brigade.

Liturgy is not costume drama

We see this same decision process in the Church.

Some weeks ago, Pope Francis did not speculate that some clergy might or might not really want to take the reforms of Vatican II to heart. Rather, he saw that their actual activity now - wearing lace and birettas - sent out a signal that they did not like modernity.

This was not a "might be" or "might happen" but a definite signal to people by those priests that they preferred a former time. So the pope sent a clear and definite signal to them!

In effect, he told them that helping the People of God celebrate their liturgy - it belongs to all the baptized because when we assemble we are "wholly celebrant" - is what their ministry is about. It is not costume drama in which they, as clergy, have the leading roles and take the bows!

The view out of a Roman window: the view from outside, looking in, is very different!

But there are many other areas where the Church, or clergy, are right now sending out signals that indicate an actual problem - a fire that needs fighting urgently. And if these are not tackled, then it will make the whole synodal process, for both the fearful and the hopeful, little more than hot air.

Seen to be transparent

Long trained to discretion, indeed secrecy, most clergy are happier dealing with anything "scandalous" far from the public view. Hence, one episcopal conference after another has been found to have been involved in cover-ups! It would be interesting to know just how many bishops have had to resign in the last 25 years because they were seen "to have swept matters under the carpet".

But this attitude - quite apart from the fact that it is morally unjust (criminals were allowed to create more suffering and went un-punished) and ecclesiologically inept (every member of the Church is as much a member as anyone else) - also failed to appreciate our cultural situation.

Lace inside the head

Many years ago I heard praise of a new bishop - arrived from a job in Rome - by some of the canons of his chapter: "He is the soul of discretion - his Vatican training is in his every move!"

I hope that would not be a vote of approbation by those priests today if they got a new bishop. Anyone who is so naturalized to secrecy, even to holding up the so-called "pontifical secret", is actually unfit for a job in the Roman Curia, much less in a diocese.

Such a man is an inhabitant of a world that is long past. Such a man is wearing lace inside his head.

A world that craves transparency

Whenever we find examples of people doing things in a "smoke-filled room" or "behind closed doors" or without full reporting, we become suspicious. Sad experience has taught us that such "back room" procedures are usually the fore-runner of greater problems.

So, for example, we are not surprised to hear that there is a crackdown on a free press and open discussion in Vladimir Putin's Russia. What might be labelled "judicious discretion" among two bishops in purple cassocks seems little different from "suppression" and "repression" when done by a military junta.

But time and again we see a minimalist approach to transparency from bishops. It is simply the wrong signal: it creates the impression that they cannot be trusted. Then it generates the question: why do they want to keep things back? Then: what have they to hide?

The breakdown of trust in the Church - which just might be generating those attitudes which cause the fears expressed by Cardinal Kasper - is a fact right now. Once people spontaneously generate that wonderful expression, the hermeneutic of suspicion, then there is a rupture in the magisterium.

This rupture is not a possible fruit of a mistaken approach to synodality (i.e. the equivalent of "will the house go on fire?" or "will there be a sea-battle tomorrow?"), but a simple fact for many of the baptized - they do not trust the official statements of bishops as anything more than statements intended to preserve power and prevent necessary change.

This level of suspicion of bishops has probably not been seen over wide areas of the Western Church since the sixteenth century.

An interesting slogan

Among disadvantaged groups this very significant statement is often repeated: Nothing about us, without us, is for us.

It is worth thinking carefully about the implications of this maxim.

It speaks of suspicion, the desire for transparency, and the desire for real - not token - consultation.

It also speaks about the experience of women who hear statements made about them and their bodies by men.

It speaks about married people hearing about the demands of the Christian life from celibates who have never had to worry about being out of work, never had to cope with the pressures of providing food or shelter or repaying a mortgage each month, nor dealing with the worries that are part of every relationship and family.

It speaks about hearing of "child protection measures" from men who do not have children but have profound professional identification with clerical abusers.

And the list goes on ….

Signs of the times

Let's not worry about tomorrow's potential problems, we have enough actuals that need urgent attention.

"So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today" (Mt 6:34).

Time is short! Some things are urgent! Transparency is a 'sign of this time'

Time is short! Some things are urgent! Transparency is a 'sign of this time'

We need to take heed of the signs of the times - and stop sending out the wrong signals.

You might say, "But transparency is not that important, and certainly not part of our moment! Let's just ignore it!"

Well, some people in the Vatican have already seen that it is part of our historical moment - hence the accounts for Peter's Pence have just been published for the first time. This is the transparency that is appropriate to a community such as the Church.

Anything that is less than full transparency - and being transparent about transparency - is a skandalon (a stumbling block) to evangelization.

• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.
• Thomas O'Loughlin is a presbyter of the Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton and professor-emeritus of historical theology at the University of Nottingham (UK). His latest book is Discipleship and Society in the Early Churches.

While abuse of power can take many forms, many abusers rely on the excessive and, let's say it, clericalist use of secrecy.

For decades many Church bodies, including the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, have repeatedly called for removing the pontifical secret.

On December 17, 2019, Pope Francis finally lifted it for cases of sexual violence and abuse of minors committed by members of the clergy.

Nevertheless, this is just one step.

A culture of secrecy still exists in the Church, for reasons not always justified and or even healthy.

This culture continues to contribute to authoritarianism, clericalism and patriarchalism - all attitudes deeply disrespectful of equality among the baptized.

We can cite three examples.

Crimen sollicitationis, a text that remained secret for more than a century

We know today, without yet knowing all the twists and turns, the journey of the text Crimen sollicitationis, aimed at setting up procedures to respond to the case where a cleric solicits sexual favours in the context of confession.

The issue was explosive. The Church first addressed it in 1741 and included it in the 1917 Code of Canon Law.

But the text explaining the procedure to be followed in case of the "crime of solicitation", which gave its name to this document, was published for the first time in 1922.

Yet it remained secret. We only learned of its existence in 1962!

This document contained practical procedures to follow when dealing with an abusive cleric. But it was never officially published. It was sent only to a few episcopal conferences.

Which conferences and why?

Is it enough to invoke a certain idea of "harm done to the Church" to justify this secrecy?

Was it not, on the contrary, a question of doing "good" to the Church at a time when it had to face up to the evidence of reality?

Crimen sollicitationis remained in force until 2001.

The lack of transparency surrounding the condemnation of contraception

The second example has been investigated many times.

At the time of Vatican Council II, Pope Paul VI reserved the question of birth control for himself.

He appointed a "Papal Commission for the Study of Problems of the Family, Population, and Birth Rate". Its work was to remain secret.

But in June 1964 the pope revealed the commission's existence.

Catholic public opinion was overwhelmingly positive.

Successive leaks have revealed that experts known for their conservatism had rallied around the idea of new directives, and thus Paul VI felt compelled to enlarge the commission several times.

But in the end, the majority of the commission's members agreed that "contraceptive intervention", i.e. the pill, was permissible!

But the text was not published, nor were the negotiations that took place from October 1966 (when the commission submitted its report to Pope Paul) until the July 1968 publication of Humanae vitae.

That controversial encyclical, of course, did not endorse the commission's report. Instead, it condemned the use of artificial contraception.

As Martine Sevegrand reminds us, "the encyclical is the revenge of the men of the curia... disavowing practically all the experts and a strong majority of bishops".

Two conclusions can be drawn from this.

First, according to the words of Christ, "nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, nothing is secret that will not be known" (Luke 12,2), and at the moment of revelation, the scandal is twice as bad.

And then, was Humanae vitae never welcomed because the People of God (and even the fathers of the council) were not ultimately involved in this reflection that took place in the shadows?

Female diaconate, a report never published

A third example is both a protest and a demand for today.

It concerns the commission for the female diaconate set up by Pope Francis on April 9, 2020.

Following the 2003 work of the International Theological Commission, Francis appointed a commission in 2016 in response to numerous requests, including that of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG).

It finally submitted its report in May 2019.

But this document, which was supposed to provide arguments, was never published.

Why?

What were they afraid to disclose?

The pope himself was not satisfied and appointed a new commission.

But what will come of it? Will this commission finally make its arguments public?

The question of the diaconate, like that of birth control, and like many other issues, cannot be confined to the secret archives of the Roman Curia.

These texts are not secret, since they must be rooted in the Word of God and the practices of the early Church.

All their arguments must absolutely be published and made available to the People of God. If they are not, the people cannot accept them.

Wanting to maintain the secrecy of texts that should not be kept secret is to further contribute to the logic of collapse highlighted by the recently published report on the sexual abuse in the French Church.

• Marie-Jo Thiel is a physician who teaches ethics in the theology department at the University of Strasbourg (France). She is an award-winning author of numerous books and essays.
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

In the last couple weeks, it was revealed that the US Justice department has secretly (ironic) charged Wiki-leaks founder Julian Assange with publicizing government secrets.

Also recently, the US Catholic bishops voted down a resolution which would have encouraged the Vatican to release all its documentation on the disgraced Archbishop McCarrick.

Last month, Harvard University released a cache of classified admissions data in the context of a lawsuit alleging that the school was discriminating against Asian Americans.

The popularity of Assange, Edward Snowden, and other anti-secrecy activists runs parallel to a deep-seated distrust of institutions, particularly prevalent among young people.

The demand for transparency and suspicion of institutions are signs of a desire for truth and goodness, which can so often be absent from human endeavors.

Positive results have come about as a result of pressure by folks who stand up to secrecy in institutions: greater accountability for clandestine government operations, more conversation about the inadequacy of the Church's response to abuse, a facing-up to how we tend to think about race.

Transparency's limits

But is transparency a virtue without limit?

Does prudence demand that some secrets best be kept?

As a millenial (I'll admit it), my gut inclination is to be all about transparency.

The truth will set us free. Shining a light into darkness drives away the evil. Why would the government or the Church or a university have anything to hide?

But some folks I respect deeply, people older and wiser than I, have encouraged me to reconsider the deep commitment I feel to transparency.

As much as I would like to open my heart and history for all the world to see, that would be foolish and an ineffective way of ministering to people.

Keeping secrets helps protect the lives of our military serving overseas.

The seal of confession protects penitents from worry of blackmail or loss of reputation.

A university should keep its admissions policy on the hush-hush so that applicants won't try to game the system.

Prudence

These arguments for secrecy all boil down to the virtue of prudence, which deals with discerning a good and choosing the best means for achieving it.

Sometimes, just given the way that the world works, keeping something secret is the best course of action for saving lives, protecting people's reputations, or preserving fairness in college admissions. Keeping a secret is not an inherently bad thing.

For example, say a friend tells you that years ago she cheated on an exam in high school, you will likely feel obligated as a good friend to keep that secret.

Friendship is a good thing and if keeping a secret in that situation is the best way of maintaining that friendship, you ought to keep the secret.

If she was clearly qualified enough to graduate and the effects of her cheating have no bearing on today, it doesn't make sense to risk her reputation and your friendship just to get the truth out there.

Of course, the argument could be made that secrecy is not the best means in a given situation. Continue reading

• Brendan Gottschall, SJ is a scholastic of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus. He is currently studying philosophy and theology at Fordham University in the Bronx.
• Image: Society of Jesus

David Ridsdale is the nephew of notorious Australian paedophile priest Fr Gerald Ridsdale.

David Ridsdale has repeatedly called for Cardinal Pell and the Church to be transparent about what they knew about the abuse of children within Catholic institutions.

In 1995, David Ridsdale was charged with two counts of indecently assaulting a young boy, to which he pleaded guilty.

He was placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond, with the magistrate noting that his history of being abused may have led to his own abusing.

Continue reading

Under statutes approved by the Pope earlier this year, the auditor general will have the power to audit the books of any Vatican office.

He will report directly to the Pope.

Having an independent auditor helps ensure the "separation of powers" needed for reforming the Vatican's economic activity.

Among Mr Milone's previous work was three years as a member of the audit committee of the United Nations' World Food Programme.

Continue reading

This is so New Zealanders can better evaluate the trade deal's implications, the bishops stated.

The bishops acknowledge the right and duty of any New Zealand Government to promote the nation's trading opportunities.

And they are mindful that the well-being of New Zealanders depends on economic growth.

But the lack of transparency and public involvement on the TPP is a cause for great concern, the bishops stated.

"The sense of unease stretches across the community, and includes people in business, academics and unionists.

"Corporate interests are party to the TPP negotiations and able to exert influence in favour of their own interests, while the people are excluded.

"This leads to the belief that ordinary New Zealanders, and particularly those who are poorer, will be disadvantaged by the TPPA and all the benefits will accrue to those who already have considerable wealth.

"The bishops accept that secrecy may be the norm in ordinary trade agreements, but the TPP is more than just a trade negotiation.

"It has the capacity to reach into domestic economies, and to dictate what happens within a nation's own political and legal systems."

The bishops pointed to the parallel Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, where the European Commission has introduced measures to increase transparency and allow public scrutiny and consultation.

The bishops asked New Zealand's Government to give serious consideration to making the draft text of the TPP available, so that New Zealanders "are able to evaluate for themselves, according to their own principles, the potential negatives and positives of the TPP".

Last month, Bishop Charles Drennan joined a public protest in Palmerston North against the proposed trade agreement.

Sources

• New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference
• Stuff
• Image: Hoosier Ag Today

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

Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican's secretary for the economy, told cardinals last week that $0.5 billion in assets had been purposefully excluded from a 2013 overall balance sheet.

And US$1billion should have been included in that report but wasn't.

These omissions were not because of illegal activity, Cardinal Pell told Crux's John Allen.

Rather, they were because of an overly compartmentalised and unwieldy Vatican reporting system that allowed significant pockets of assets to go undetected.

The $US1.5billion figure is several times larger than an estimate in December.

Cardinals were also told the Vatican's real estate holdings may be undervalued by a factor of four.

But the Vatican's pension fund is looking at a projected deficit of nearly US$1billion, although the fund is secure for the next 10-15 years.

Cardinal Pell said elderly cardinals were assured "their pensions are secure", but warned the shortfall could be even higher due to interest rate trends.

He said the latest financial reports presented to cardinals is the first time "we've had a comprehensive and, we believe, accurate picture about what's going on economically".

But even now he's not sure that all assets are yet fully accounted for.

Cardinal Pell said the "clean-up effort" on the Vatican's finances initially drew "enthusiastic opposition", especially from some of the Vatican's other traditional centres of power such as the Secretariat of State.

But that opposition dimmed after Pope Francis approved a new set of procedures for money management last October, he said.

"We have to make it terribly difficult to return to waste and inefficiency and some measure of corruption," Cardinal Pell said.

An independent auditor general reporting directly to the Pope is another reform on the horizon.

Cardinal Pell promised that later this year "for the first time ever in Vatican history", the various departments will be providing quarterly reports comparing expenditures to budgets.

American Cardinal Daniel DiNardo said a move to have one consolidated budget for the entire Vatican is encountering significant resistance from forces which feel threatened by reform.

Sources

• Crux
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Australian Women's Weekly

After being accused of lavish spending, Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Limburg has travelled to Rome to meet officials at the Vatican, where Pope Francis has made it clear he prefers Church leaders to adopt a simple lifestyle.

Controversy over Bishop Tebart-van Elst has focused on cost overruns on his luxurious new residence complex and related renovations, now priced at $NZ50 million.

The bishop reportedly can afford this expenditure because German dioceses have untaxed secret reserves called the "bishop's chair", known only to the bishop and a few advisors.

In some older dioceses, "bishop's chair" reserves include age-old property holdings, donations from former princely rulers and funds from German states over the past two centuries.

As pressure increases for transparency in the Church's financial affairs, some dioceses are now revealing the extent of their "bishop's chair" funds.

Cologne, the largest and reportedly richest diocese in Europe, announced "in connection with the current discussion about Church finances" that its archbishop had reserves equal to $NZ268 million in 2012.

The small diocese of Trier, Germany's oldest, had a reserve of $NZ136 million and said part of its earnings went to pay damages to victims of the clerical sexual abuse scandals that rocked the German Church in recent years.

The increasing exodus of disillusioned Catholics from the Church in Germany has even alarmed the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, whose spokesman said the situation in Limburg was proving a burden to the Catholic Church.

Christians in Germany pay a church tax, which in 2012 raised more than $NZ8 billion for the Catholics and more than $NZ7 billion for the Protestant churches.

A Catholic who formally resigns from the Church no longer has to pay this tax.

Sources:

Reuters

The Tablet

Associated Press

Image: Vatican Insider

The Holy See Press Office said the new norm, Law XVIII, "strengthens the current internal system for the prevention and countering of money laundering and the financing of terrorism, in conformity with international guidelines".

It marks the latest development in efforts by both Pope Francis and, up until his retirement, Benedict XVI, to reform the financial system of Vatican City and the Holy See.

Law XVIII implements Pope Francis's motu proprio of August 8, which called for a broadening of existing Vatican laws on financial supervision.

Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for relations with states, said that "special attention" will now be dedicated to giving information on "suspicious activities", which will be carried out under the auspices of the Financial Information Authority.

If a "valid reason" to suspect activities of money laundering or financing of terrorism should occur, the FIA will send a "detailed report" to the Vatican's promoter of justice, and transactions and operations under suspicion may be suspended "for up to five working days", the archbishop explained.

He added that the FIA has powers of "general supervision" to ensure prescribed measures are taken by "obligated subjects" against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

He also said that "administrative sanctions" can be applied by the FIA, or, in the most serious cases, by the president of Vatican City, upon suggestion by the FIA.

The Vatican diplomat further stated that individuals who threaten peace and international security will be automatically denied the ability to trade or make financial transactions with the Vatican.

He said the FIA may immediately place "a preventative block" on their goods and resources and financial transactions.

The new law also regulates the "cross-border transportation" of cash amounting to more than 10,000 euros, in co-operation with other states and "on the basis of agreement protocols", Archbishop Mamberti said.

Sources:

National Catholic Register

Vatican Information Service

Vatican Information Service

Image: The Hindu

"You see a rather conservatively managed financial institution safeguarding assets, investing in very conservative investments like government bonds and bank deposits," said Ernst von Freyberg.

"And you will see an institution highly capitalised. At the end of last year our equity ratio was 15 per cent, which is way above what comparable financial institutions would have."

Publication of the report was part of a reform programme aimed at transparency and compliance with industry standards following allegations of money-laundering and other dubious transactions.

The report shows that the bank — officially known as the Institute for Religious works — holds about $NZ11.5 billion in assets, and realised a profit of $NZ141 million in 2012, of which $NZ89 million was contributed to the Holy See.

The bank said it had about 18,900 customers at the end of 2012, about half of whom were religious orders.

Vatican offices and nunciatures (Vatican embassies around the world) accounted for about 15 per cent of the clientele, while about 13 per cent of the accounts belonged to cardinals, bishops and priests, and 9 per cent belonged to dioceses.

Most of the remaining accounts were held by Vatican employees and religious education institutes. The report said there are no secret or numbered accounts.

The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera said the bank has closed 900 accounts held by individuals or groups that didn't pass a first round of review related to transparency in the origin or movement of funds.

It also said the bank is closing all accounts held by foreign diplomatic missions. Of the 180 nations that have diplomatic relations with the Vatican, the newspaper said at least 20 have accounts at the bank.

As for the future of the bank, von Freyberg said "the Holy Father will decide later this year or next year in which exact direction he wants to send us".

Sources:

National Catholic Reporter

Catholic News Service

Vatican Radio

Image: National Catholic Reporter

Vatican Radio quoted bank president Ernst von Freyberg that the site will provide information "on our reforms and the things we do in the world and how we support the Church and its mission and charitable works."

The bank, which is officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion, has been the target of investigations by Italian authorities.

Freyberg said he plans to run the bank in line with international norms. "Our task is to run [the bank] in a way that it can respond to international norms, that it is a clean institute and one of service," von Freyberg was quoted as saying.

He said the new measures are aimed at giving Pope Francis the ability to decide the right formula for the bank.

Pope Francis last week said the bank must become "honest and transparent."

The pope made his comments at the end of his first international trip to Brazil for the World Youth Day celebrations.

"I don't know what will become of the bank. Some say it is better that is a bank, others that it should be a charitable fund and others say close it," he said.

"We have to find the solution," Francis said. "But whatever the solution, it must have transparency and honesty. That's the way it must be," he said.

The Vatican earlier confirmed its Financial Information Authority had signed a memorandum of understanding with Italian authorities over the exchange of financial information to combat money laundering in line with international standards.

The Vatican has already signed similar agreements with other countries, including the United States.

Visitors to the Vatican Bank website can read about the bank's 71-year history, how many customers it has (18,900, as of last year), its employees (114), and its net profit for 2012, listed as €86.6m (£75.6m).

Sources

UPI

Chicago Tribune

euronews

The Guardian

Image: AFP/Getty Images/NYT

Q: President Ernst von Freyberg, do you like your job, coming from Frankfurt down to Rome, working inside the Vatican?

A: It is a great privilege to work here; it is the most inspiring environment you can imagine: working at the Vatican. And it is a great challenge to serve the pope in re-establishing the reputation of this institute.

Q: What did you imagine your work to be, prior to starting here?

A: Different from what it is. When I came here I thought I would need to focus on what is normally described as cleaning out and dealing with improper deposits. There is - until now - nothing I can detect. That doesn't mean that there isn't anything, but it means that it is not our biggest issue.

Our biggest issue is our reputation. Our work - my work - is much more communication than originally thought. And it is much more communication inside the Church. We haven't done enough of that in the past. It starts a home, with our own employees, with those who work for the Church in Rome, with those in the Church around the world. To them we owe first of all transparency and a good explication of what we do and how we try to serve.

Q: How come someone like yourself with that kind of experience wants to work for the Vatican, after all the stories that the IOR went through?

A: You don't want to. It is not something you sit at home and dream of. Even when you interview you don't say to yourself ‘I really want this job'. When you are called, you are very happy to accept that call, and that is I think also true for the other candidates who were interviewed for this position. Continue reading

Sources

• Vassallomata
• Image: NCR Online

Fr Brennan gave his personal reflections on Catholic education and social justice, Vatican II and Catholic education 50 years on, contemporary faith and "some guideposts for re-imagining the mission", among other things. He said that greater transparency in the Church will do nothing but good for the Church.

• Read Fr Frank Brennan SJ's article
• Image: Trends Updates

Fr Joseph McGuane, the first ordinary cleric in Cloyne to comment on the child abuse controversies, said that ordinary people were very angry that "justice has taken a back seat."

"The leadership has sailed us into a perfect storm and there must be a new way of thinking to get us out," he said.

"The church is in a bigger crisis now than it was back in 1994 when the Fr Brendan Smyth scandal brought down the government."

The church needs to transform itself totally and guarantee greater transparency. There is a major task ahead rolling back "a culture of cover-up and dictatorship," the Cloyne cleric said.

McGuane said that the emphasis within the church has been on authority and control from the top down - with desperately negative consequences.

"It would be a great help if my peers spoke out - sadly, I am the only one. There is a culture of fear within the diocese. Good people are afraid of the repercussions if they do speak out — it is hard to break ranks," he said.

Fr McGuane said it was clear that rather than mysteriously disappearing former Bishop John Magee should have resigned three years ago when the Cloyne diocese's problems were first highlighted by the church's own watchdog, the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children.

"I said back in 2009 that Bishop Magee should resign. The head of FAS, the Taoiseach, the Financial Regulator and the heads of the banks, they all fell on their swords. Why should it be any different in the church?"

Fr McGuane insisted that there was hope for the future, and he said men of "courage and conviction" like the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin have signalled the way forward.

"The church is finished if we do not learn lessons. It is an urgent situation — let's speak out together now before it is too late," he added.

Sources

• Independent.ie
• Image: The Laitude