Perestroika in the Vatican

The Vatican has taken another step towards full transparency of financial transactions by publishing the first annual report in the history of the Holy See, Interfax-Religion reports.

According to the Associated Press, the report is only ten pages long and contains very little information about the oversight responsibilities of the Vatican's financial information office, which authored the report. However, it notes that the regulator received six reports of suspicious internal transactions in 2012, two of which were referred to the prosecutor's office for investigation. In 2011, only one such message was registered.

The Office of Financial Information of the Holy See was established by Pope Benedict XVI at the end of December 2010. Its main task is control and supervision of the monetary and commercial activities of Vatican institutions, primarily the so-called Vatican Bank (officially the Institute of Religious Affairs).

Director of the department Rene Brulhart emphasized that the Vatican has stepped up the fight against money laundering in accordance with the requirements of the international community.

In July 2012, the Vatican Bank successfully passed the first financial transparency audit carried out by the Council of Europe's anti-money laundering assessment group (Moneyval). However, assessments of the effectiveness of the financial supervisory authority and the ability of the Vatican Bank to monitor suspicious transactions were extremely low. The Holy See's report on "working on mistakes" based on the results of the audit is due to be submitted to the regulator in September 2013.

Will we ever get a financial report from the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia? Even at the Councils of Bishops, information about the incomes and expenses of the Patriarchate is given out in very measured doses, and there is no talk of a full report. So not only “big” society, but also the church community has very little idea of ​​what is happening with church-wide finances.