Reuters

Mon Jul 29, 2013

(Reuters) – Pope Francis said the troubled Vatican bank must become “honest and transparent” and that he will listen to the advice of a commission he has set up on whether it can be reformed or needs to be shut down altogether.

The pope made his comments, his most detailed to date on the bank’s troubles, in his first news conference, a remarkably frank 80-minute meeting with reporters on Sunday night shortly after his plane left Brazil at the end of his first international trip.

“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.

The bank, formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), is the target of several investigations by Italian magistrates on suspicion of money laundering.

“We…