Random Catholic musings

[Risto the Great]

It seems the Catholic church is exterting some strict control over its assets and religious orders. A casual observer might think the Catholic church is already anticipating what is coming from the likes of WEF facilitatators with the following recent actions:

Pope Francis instructs Vatican entities to move all funds to Vatican bank by Sept. 30

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/n...ank-by-sept-30

Pope Francis has ordered that the Holy See and connected entities move all financial assets to the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), commonly known as the Vatican bank.

The pope’s rescript, issued Aug. 23, clarifies the interpretation of a paragraph in the new constitution of the Roman Curia, Praedicate Evangelium, promulgated in March.

According to Francis’ rescript, financial and liquid assets held in banks other than the IOR must be moved to the Vatican bank within 30 days of Sept. 1, 2022.

The IOR, based in Vatican City State, has 110 employees and 14,519 clients. As of 2021, it looked after 5.2 billion euros ($5.6 billion) of client assets.

Though commonly called a “bank,” the IOR is technically a financial institute, with no branches, working within Vatican City State to provide services to clients, which include the Holy See and connected entities, religious orders, clergy, Catholic institutions, and Holy See employees.

The IOR saw its number of clients decline by 472, from 14,991 clients at the end of 2020 to 14,519 in 2021. Nearly half of its clients in 2019 were religious orders.

According to its annual report, the financial institution’s $19 million net profit in 2021 was also down from $44 million in 2020 and $46 million in 2019.

In his Aug. 23 rescript, Pope Francis said article 219, paragraph 3 of Praedicate Evangelium “must be interpreted to mean that the activity of asset manager and custodian of the movable patrimony of the Holy See and of the Institutions connected with the Holy See is the exclusive responsibility of the Institute for Works of Religion.”

The decree will force Holy See institutions, including the Secretariat of State, to move their financial assets to the IOR by the end of September. The Secretariat of State is known to have had accounts in Swiss financial institutions, including Credit Suisse, through which the controversial London building investment was initially carried out.

Article 219, paragraph 3 of the new curial constitution says: “The execution of the financial transactions referred to in §§ 1 and 2 is carried out through the Institute for the Works of Religion,” the IOR.

The financial transactions described in paragraphs 1 and 2 of article 219 are the administration and management of the Holy See's real estate and movable assets and entities entrusting their assets to the Holy See.

[Risto the Great]

Pope dissolves Knights of Malta leadership, issues new constitution

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...on-2022-09-03/

VATICAN CITY, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Saturday dissolved the leadership of the Knights of Malta, the global Catholic religious order and humanitarian group, and installed a provisional government ahead of the election of a new Grand Master.

The change, which the pope issued in a decree, came after five years of often acrimonious debate within the order and between some top members of the old guard and the Vatican over a new constitution that some feared would weaken its sovereignty.

The group, whose formal name is Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, was founded in Jerusalem nearly 1,000 years ago to provide medical aid for pilgrims in the Holy Land.

It now has a multi-million dollar budget, 13,500 members, 95,000 volunteers and 52,000 medical staff running refugee camps, drug treatment centres, disaster relief programs and clinics around the world.

The order has been very active in helping Ukrainian refugees and war victims.

It has no real territory apart from a palace and offices in Rome and a fort in Malta, but is recognised as a sovereign entity with its own passports and licence plates.

It has diplomatic relations with 110 states and permanent observer status at the United Nations, allowing to act as a neutral party in relief efforts in war zones.

Cardinal Silvano Tomasi, the pope's special delegate to the order, told reporters at a briefing along with some members of the provisional government that the order's new constitution would not weaken its international sovereignty.

But as a religious order, it had to remain under the auspices of the Vatican, said Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, a member of the working group that prepared the new constitution approved by the pope on Saturday.

Francis convoked an extraordinary general chapter for Jan. 25 to begin the process of electing a new Grand Master.

The last one, Italian Giacomo Dalla Torre, died in April.

"We hope this will re-establish unity in the order and increase its ability to serve the poor and the sick," Tomasi said.

Tomasi and the Lieutenant of the Grand Master, Canadian John Dunlap, will lead the group to the general chapter. A new Grand Master is expected to be elected by March, officials said.

Under the previous constitution, the top Knights and the Grand Master were required to have noble lineage, something reformers said excluded nearly everyone except Europeans from serving in top roles.

The new constitution eliminates the nobility rule as well as the tradition of Grand Masters being elected for life.

"It will be more democratic. The question of nobility has now become secondary," Tomasi said.

Future Grand Masters will be elected for 10-year terms, renewable only once, and will have to step down at age 85.

Reformers, backed by the Vatican, had called for a more transparent government to bring in fresh blood and allow the order to better respond to the massive growth it has seen in recent years.

[kompir]

Something is brewing that has the Vatican shit scared, I've never seen them panic like this.