(Vatican Radio) The Institute for Religious Works (IOR), commonly known as the Vatican Bank, released its Annual Report with a press release on Thursday showing it made a net profit of 16.1 million Euros in 2015. Speaking in an interview with Vatican media, the IOR’s Director General Gian Franco Mammì, said it’s now "impossible to launder money" there and pledged to continue the institute’s drive for reform, renewal and total transparency. As part as that reorganization drive, the Annual Report said a total of 4935 accounts held at the IOR were closed down last year and all “suspicious” accounts have been reported to the competent authorities. Mammì said the 2015 profits have been given to the Cardinals' Commission that supervises the IOR's activities and the Commission will "make sure" they are available for Pope Francis and his pastoral mission. In a roundtable interview with Vatican R...
(Vatican Radio) The Institute for Religious Works (IOR), commonly known as the Vatican Bank, released its Annual Report with a press release on Thursday showing it made a net profit of 16.1 million Euros in 2015. Speaking in an interview with Vatican media, the IOR’s Director General Gian Franco Mammì, said it’s now "impossible to launder money" there and pledged to continue the institute’s drive for reform, renewal and total transparency. As part as that reorganization drive, the Annual Report said a total of 4935 accounts held at the IOR were closed down last year and all “suspicious” accounts have been reported to the competent authorities. Mammì said the 2015 profits have been given to the Cardinals' Commission that supervises the IOR's activities and the Commission will "make sure" they are available for Pope Francis and his pastoral mission.
In a roundtable interview with Vatican Radio and the Osservatore Romano newspaper, the IOR’s President Jean Baptiste Douville de Franssu and Mammì, both spoke of how strong controls and governance and a major reorganization have been put in place, aimed at making “the IOR as rigorous and clean an institution” as possible.
Whilst acknowledging past abuses by its clients, Douville de Franssu stressed that as a result of the new very strict rules governing who can open an account, it’s (now) “impossible to launder money at the IOR.” Given that “money is tempting,” Douville de Franssu said any financial institution that does not have strong governance and controls is by its very nature exposed to potential abuse. But he said the IOR has put in place a framework to ensure that some of the abuses that may have happened in the past “will never reoccur.”
During a visit to the IOR in November 2015, Pope Francis insisted on the need for the institute to adhere to ethical principles that are "non-negotiable" for the Church, the Holy See and the Pope.
A Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish procession honoring the patroness of Cuba on Sept. 7, 2023. / Credit: Sacred Heart of Jesus parish in Havana, CubaACI Prensa Staff, Mar 28, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).The regime of President Miguel Díaz-Canel in Cuba has prohibited several Holy Week processions in different cities of the country, including the El Vedado area of Havana as well as in Bayamo, a town that was the scene of major protests earlier this month.Last week, ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, reported on the prohibition of processions in the Diocese of the Most Holy Savior located in the Bayamo-Manzanillo area in the province of Granma, due to the regime's fear that new protests would break out. The prohibition has been extended to the capital, Havana, according to a Catholic priest.In a March 25 Facebook post, Father Lester Zayas, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in the El Vedado business district of Havana, reported that the day before he had been notifie...
The Catholic faithful gathered in the Cenacle in Jerusalem for the Mass of the Lord's Supper that the Franciscan friars celebrated on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. The Cenacle is at the center of strong tensions and disputes regarding ownership and rights of access and celebration. An ancient tradition places King David's tomb here and over the centuries Jews and Muslims have leveraged this to first expel the Franciscans and then to prevent Christian worship, which they deemed sacrilegious. / Credit: Marinella BandiniJerusalem, Mar 28, 2024 / 17:15 pm (CNA).On Holy Thursday, the doors of the Cenacle in Jerusalem were opened to welcome the Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land. In this "Upper Room," called the Cenacle in the Holy Land, Jesus had his Last Supper, washed his apostles' feet, and instituted the Eucharist. It was here that the Franciscans celebrated the Mass of the Lord's Supper, reenacting those same gestures. (At the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher,...
The Oregon State Capitol in Salem. / Credit: Zack Frank/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 28, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is reporting a significant rise in assisted suicide prescriptions and deaths in the state, a move that comes after authorities in 2022 began allowing out-of-state residents to access the lethal services.Since the state's passage of the "Death with Dignity Act" in 1997, assisted suicide numbers have been generally rising there, with a markedly sharp uptick since 2013. OHA on March 20 released its 2023 assisted suicide data summary that reported a considerable increase in suicide prescriptions in 2023. The study found that assisted suicide prescriptions in the state rose from 433 in 2022 to 560 last year.Of those 560 prescriptions, 367 people are known to have died from ingesting the suicide "medications." This is up from the 304 who died from assisted suicide drugs in Oregon in 2022.Over half, or 56%, of the assisted ...