The IOR will continue to exist, but Pope Francis has decided how to reform it. The Vatican lets it be known in a statement that the Pontiff "has approved a proposal on the future of the Institute for Religious Works", which will still provide "specialized financial services to the Catholic Church throughout the world", but with the introduction of "a 'wide and articulated legal and institutional structure aimed at regulating financial activities within the Holy See and the Vatican City State", in compliance "with the motu proprio of 8 August 2013 and 15 November 2013 and with law number XVIII on Transparency, Supervision and Financial Reporting which entered into force on 8 October 2013”.
The Cardinal-Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, the Australian George Pell, “confirmed the importance of a sustainable and systematic alignment of the legal and regulatory structures of the Holy See and Vatican City State with international regulatory best practices - continues the note -. Effective regulatory oversight and the progress achieved in compliance, transparency and operations initiated in 2012 and significantly accelerated in 2013 are fundamental to the future of the Institute”.
However, the activities of the IOR will continue to fall under the regulatory supervision of the AIF (Financial Intelligence Authority), competent within the Holy See and the Vatican City State.
Last February, the IOR ended up under the lens of the "G8" of cardinals, called to reform the Curia together with Bergoglio. For the fate of the Vatican Bank, the Pope had hypothesized three possible solutions: the transformation into an ethical bank, the introduction of a new transparency with the confirmation of the current mission, and the suppression.
"The proposal was developed jointly by representatives of the pontifical commission of reference on the IOR (Crior), led by Cardinal Raffaele Farina - concludes the note - of the pontifical commission of reference for study and guidance on the organization of the economic-administrative structure of the Holy See ( Cosea), led by the Maltese Joseph Zahra, of the IOR commission of cardinals, led by the Spanish cardinal Santos Abril y Castellò, and of the IOR supervisory board, the lay board on which sits, among other things, the Supreme Knight of Columbus Carl Anderson".
