VATICAN CITY
Macleans
by The Associated Press on Thursday, June 13, 2013
VATICAN CITY – The Vatican put a new coin on sale last week to commemorate its historic papal transition. Too bad overseas collectors won’t be able to buy it for months.
The Associated Press has learned that the Vatican still hasn’t fully resolved an embarrassing shutdown in credit card services, despite announcing four months ago that systems were back up. The impact has been far worse than the Vatican ever let on, costing the Holy See lost sales at a time when Pope Benedict XVI’s shock resignation and Pope Francis’ surprise election laid the groundwork for a bonanza in Vatican-minted papal memorabilia.
It’s all emblematic of the continued troubles plaguing the Holy See’s financial system, rocked by allegations of incompetence and corruption. But the new president of the Vatican bank, while acknowledging the delays and losses stemming from the credit card shutdown, is brushing off the fiasco.
“So sales will be up in the second half of the year,” Ernst von Freyberg told the AP in an interview, laughing.
The truth is, however, that the credit card woes represent yet another headache for the Vatican as it works to improve its reputation internationally through a painful transition to financial transparency in the fight against money laundering.
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