VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
A newspaper has published a confidential memo on relations between the Vatican Bank and the new internal surveillance Authority, concluding that there is no real wish for transparency. But this is not the case
ANDREA TORNIELLI
Vatican City
Last 31 January, Italian daily newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano published the content of a confidential internal memo regarding the interpretation of the transparency law introduced by the Holy See at the instigation of Pope Benedict XVI and his Secretary of State, in 2011. The document which was partially reproduced from the original, includes some hand written annotations which the Italian newspaper presumed were written by Fr. Georg Gänswein, the Pope private secretary.
The document entitled “Memo on the IOR-AIF reports”, is defined as “confidential” and according to the newspaper “was written by a “high ranking figure who can afford to allow Vatican leaders to analyse the document.” According to Il Fatto Quotidiano the memo is supposed to prove that in spite of their public declarations regarding transparency, Vatican high authorities have agreed not to collaborate with the Italian justice system on what had been going on in the IOR up until April 2011. That is, the enforcement of new regulations which would involve the Holy See being placed on the “white list” of virtuous States engaged in the crackdown against money laundering.
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