Francis 'loses patience' in Vatican corruption fight
Agence-France Presse
Catherine MARCIANO, Alexandria SAGE
30 September 2020
Pope Francis once likened sorting out the Vatican's tangled accounts to "cleaning the Sphinx of Egypt with a toothbrush".
By dismissing a close aide linked to a murky London property deal in a move described as "the most significant firing of his papacy", analysts say Francis has deployed a pressure washer to alleged in-house financial impropriety.
Last week, the 83-year-old pontiff forced the resignation of Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, a prominent member of the church hierarchy and close adviser to the prelate.
The former No 2 at the Vatican's Secretariat of State, which manages the church's vast donations, has been accused of syphoning off funds destined for the poor to family members – a charge he denies.
Becciu has been linked in particular to a controversial luxury property investment deal in London, with at least some of the money used reportedly coming from the annual Peter's Pence collection for the poor.
It is not the only financial scandal to have dogged the Vatican in recent years: in 2017, the ex-head of a Vatican-run hospital was convicted of funnelling a fortune from a foundation to renovate a cardinal's apartment.
And the Vatican bank, known as the IOR, was for decades embroiled in numerous controversies, with one of its former presidents ordered to stand trial on charges of embezzlement and money laundering in 2018.
But Francis has upped the speed of his reforms recently, suggesting he is "losing patience" with moral persuasion and "is more inclined to make heads roll," said John Allen, Vatican expert for the Cruxnow.com religious news site.
"'Accountability,' in the full American sense of the word, is finally crossing the Tiber in the Pope Francis era," he said, describing it as "by far the most significant firing" of the pontiff's era.
The surprise decision to also strip Becciu of the rights associated with being a cardinal a very rare punishment was a clear signal ahead of an inspection Wednesday by Moneyval, the Council of Europe's anti-money-laundering monitoring body.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/francis-loses-patience-vatican-corruption-093313987.htm
Oh well, you tried little buddy
I am positive that you gave it your all
Plus no news and no reality is best for the fragile mind
ain't that right, Frenz?