VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Francis J. Butler | Jul. 1, 2013

COMMENTARY

As Pope Francis dives into his curial reform, he has started with the Institute for the Works of Religion, a bank of sorts often acknowledged by church officialdom as a kind of distant and wayward relative of the Holy See.

And no wonder. Late last week, Italian authorities arrested a priest employee of the Vatican’s administrative offices, Msgr. Nunzio Scarano, who is charged with conspiring to move 20 million euros in cash from Switzerland to Italy for his friends. Prior to his arrest, the priest had been under investigation in Salerno for money laundering, according to press reports.

The episode lent credence to long-circulated rumors that some of the Vatican bank’s clerical accounts are used to stash cash for the underworld.

Pope Francis moved quickly to fumigate the Vatican bank. He appointed a trusted bishop to…