VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Trustees of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation, which donates millions of dollars to papal charities each year, spent two hours at the Vatican bank April 20 and came away convinced that the institution’s bad press was undeserved, said Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington.
“I found it very reassuring,” the cardinal told Catholic News Service in Rome. “The effort of the Holy See to be transparent is demonstrable.”
The bank, which is formally called the Institute for the Works of Religion (known by its Italian initials, IOR), “is just that — a work of religion,” said the cardinal, who is chairman of the Papal Foundation’s board of trustees.
Having a bank allows Vatican offices, international religious orders and Catholic institutions to handle money in a variety of currencies and move resources to where they are needed, he said.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.