By 2014 the Vatican Secretariat of State had entrusted millions of euros from the Vatican coffers to various investment brokers.
If they had checked their backgrounds, they might have thought twice about taking such a risk.
But they didn't. And as a result, the Vatican is estimated to have lost between 73 and 166 million euros in an investment in a London property.
Vatican courts are now investigating whether officials representing the Holy See were misled, or if they acted dishonestly.
To prevent similar occurrences in the future, the Pope is launching a package of anti-corruption measures aimed at Vatican employees in charge of budgets, judges and prosecutors in the Vatican courts, and the heads of various oversight bodies.
The new measures provide that these types of employees must have clean records, they cannot have pending criminal proceedings, and they cannot hold investments in tax havens or have interests in companies that are not aligned with the Church's Social Doctrine.
Among the ventures invested in by the Secretariat of State's brokers were a pharmaceutical laboratory that among other products manufactured the morning-after pill, and the production of a movie about Elton John. Types of investments that will no longer be permitted under the new measures.
POPE FRANCIS
“But it's not only in politics. It's in all institutions. Even in the Vatican there are cases of corruption. Corruption is something that hits us inside. It's like sugar. It's sweet. We like it. It's easy. And afterwards it ends badly. With so much sugar it's easy for us to become diabetic or for our country to end up diabetic.”
The new measures apply to all those who are considered managers in the Vatican, namely the cardinals who oversee its many dicasteries.
On top, no Vatican employee may accept or solicit gifts of more than 40 euros.
JMB
TR: JM
