Bank secrecy no longer exists at the Vatican: Curial dicasteries given access to IOR accounts

Vatican City - Anyone who opens an account at the Institute for Works of Religion signs forms, accepts terms and conditions, and is assured that their personal information will be handled confidentially. What they are not told is that their data may be passed on - without a court order and without any request from the Supervisory and Financial Information Authority, ASIF - to a dicastery of the Roman Curia. Or, as will become clear, directly to the Pope himself.

The episode that exposes the system

Under Pope Francis, the way money was handled in the Vatican was worse than in the most authoritarian China - a country with which, after all, he had no difficulty concluding secret agreements. The difference was that he had the press on his side.

Bergoglio went so far as to tell the Cardinal Archpriest Emeritus of St Peter’s Basilica the precise amount held in his IOR account. This was a cardinal with very limited personal means, who had made a habit of devoting a substantial part of his money to charity and to supporting a number of people. Had such an episode emerged in Russia, the Western press would rightly have waged a campaign against the head of state. In the Vatican, however, it was all permitted. Or rather, it was under Pope Francis. And it still is when those affected are prelates and clerics. But touch a friend of one journalist or another and all hell breaks loose. Law and justice cannot work in this way. They must apply equally to everyone. Fundamental human rights must be respected. A state cannot claim to be governed by the rule of law simply because, once a year, Moneyval arrives and awards it a yellow, red or merely passable rating.