After Vatican raid, 5 officials and employees suspended

October 2, 2019 CNA Daily News News Briefs 2 Print

Vatican City, Oct 2, 2019 / 12:43 pm (CNA).- An Italian news magazine has reported that five Vatican employees have been suspended following an Oct. 1 raid of offices within the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.

An Oct. 2 internal memo from the government of the Vatican City State conveyed that the five employees have been “suspended from service.” The memo was published by L’Espresso.

Among the apparently suspended employees is Msgr. Mauro Carlino, who oversees documentation at the Secretariat of State, along with layman Tomasso Di Ruzza, director of the Vatican’s Financial Intelligence Authority.

Two other men and one woman are also listed as suspended.

The suspensions follow an Oct. 1 raid authorized by prosecutors in the Vatican City court system.

Documents and devices were taken in connection to an investigation following complaints made last summer by the Institute for Religious Works – commonly called the Vatican Bank – and the Office of the Auditor General, concerning a series of financial transactions “carried out over time,” an Oct. 1 Vatican statement said.

The Secretariat of State is the central governing office of the Catholic Church and the department of the Roman Curia which works most closely with the pope. It is also responsible for the governance of the Vatican City state.

The suspension memo says that Carlino will continue to live at the Domus Sanctae Martha, the residence at which Pope Francis also lives, and that the suspended employees can enter Vatican City State to access health services, or if a Vatican magistrate approves their admission.

The Vatican’s Financial Intelligence Authority oversees suspicious financial transactions, and is charged with ensuring that Vatican banking policies comply with international financial standards.

Pope Francis approved new governing documents for the Vatican Bank last summer, transitioning the bank from its practice of using internal auditors to the use of an external auditor to review the bank’s finances and transactions. The bank has a long history of complex financial transactions, has faced scandals, and been criticized for a lack of financial transparency.

The pope has made reforms at the Vatican Bank a priority of his pontificate.

 

 

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St. Peter’s Basilica is sanitized ahead of reopening to public

May 15, 2020 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, May 15, 2020 / 10:15 am (CNA).- Ahead of its eventual reopening to the public, St. Peter’s Basilica is being cleaned and sanitized at the direction of the Vatican’s health and hygiene department.

Public Masses will resume throughout Italy from May 18 under strict conditions.

After being closed to visitors and pilgrims for more than two months, the Vatican basilica is preparing to open again, with increased health measures, though the exact date has not yet been announced. 

Friday’s sanitation procedure began with a basic cleaning with soap and water and has proceeded to disinfecting, according to Andrea Arcangeli, the vice director of Vatican City State’s health and hygiene office. 

Arcangeli said staff are disinfecting “the pavements, the altars, the sacristy, the stairs, practically all the surfaces,” while taking care to not damage any of the basilica’s artworks. 

One of the additional health protocols St. Peter’s Basilica may adopt as a precaution against the spread of coronavirus is checking visitors’ temperatures, the Holy See press office said May 14.

Representatives of the four major Roman basilicas – St. Peter’s, St. Mary Major, St. John Lateran, and St. Paul Outside the Walls – met May 14 under the auspices of the Vatican Secretariat of State, to discuss this and other possible measures to adopt.

Holy See Press Office Director Matteo Bruni told CNA that each papal basilica would adopt measures that reflected their “specific characteristics.”

He said: “For St. Peter’s Basilica, in particular, the Vatican Gendarmerie will provide for access restrictions in close collaboration with the Inspectorate for Public Security and will facilitate safe entry with the assistance of volunteers from the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.”

Rome’s churches are also being sanitized ahead of the restart of public liturgies May 18.

After a request from the Vicariate of Rome, nine teams of hazardous-material specialists have been dispatched to disinfect inside and outside Rome’s 337 parish churches, according to the Italian daily newspaper Avvenire.

The work is being carried out through the cooperation of the Italian army and Rome’s environmental office.

During public Masses, churches in Italy will be required to limit the number of people present – ensuring a one-meter (three feet) distance – and congregants must wear face masks. The church must also be cleaned and disinfected between celebrations.

[…]

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