KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.
Reuters – 3 hours ago-july 11,13
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. Navy ships patrolling in the Middle East moved closer to Egypt's Red Sea coast in recent days, the top Marine Corps general said on Thursday, in what appeared to be a precautionary move after the military overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi.The United States often sends Navy vessels close to countries in turmoil in case it needs to protect or evacuate U.S. citizens or take part in humanitarian assistance. Their presence does not necessarily mean the United States is preparing to carry out military action."Egypt is (in) a crisis right now," Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos told the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. "When that happens, what we owe the senior leadership of our nation are some options," Amos said. He did not say what the options were.U.S. Navy and Marine Corp officials said the two ships, part of a three-ship amphibious readiness group, had been in the region since May, patrolling the Red Sea, Horn of Africa, the Gulf and the Arabian Sea, and that there were no new orders to prepare for a possible conflict in Egypt.Washington has walked a careful line, neither welcoming Mursi's removal last week nor denouncing it as a "coup." U.S. defense officials on Wednesday said they still planned to send four F-16 fighter jets to the Egyptian government as planned in coming weeks.
Amos said the USS San Antonio, an amphibious transport dock, and the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship, had moved further north in the Red Sea two or three nights ago to better respond if needed.
U.S. Marine Corps officials said moving amphibious ships closer to shore would enable easier movement of helicopters and other equipment, if it were needed."Why? Because we don't know what's going to happen," he said.Navy officials said the third ship in the group, the USS Carter Hall, remained off the coast of Bahrain in the Gulf.(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Alistair Bell and David Storey)
FAMINE
EZEKIEL 5:16
16 When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:
REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.(A DAYS WAGES FOR A LOAF OF BREAD)
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
By Sarah McFarlane-july 11,13
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has less than two months' supply of imported wheat left in its stocks, ousted President Mohamed Mursi's minister of supplies said, revealing a shortage more acute than previously disclosed.Speaking to Reuters near midnight in a tent at a vigil where thousands of Mursi supporters are protesting against the Islamist president's removal, former Minister of Supplies Bassem Ouda said the state had just 500,000 tonnes of imported wheat left. Egypt usually imports about 10 million tonnes a year.Two and a half years of political turmoil have caused a deep economic crisis in Egypt, scaring away investors and tourists, draining foreign currency reserves and making it difficult to maintain imports of food and fuel.Egypt is the world's largest importer of wheat, half of which it distributes to its 84 million people in the form of heavily subsidized saucer-sized flat loaves of bread, which sell for less than 1 U.S. cent.Bread has long been a sensitive issue in Egypt. Former President Hosni Mubarak faced unrest in 2008 when the rising price of wheat caused shortages.Although it also grows its own wheat, Egypt needs huge quantities of foreign wheat with higher gluten content to make flour suitable for bread.The ousted government closely guarded figures about its foreign grain stores even as a shortage of cash halted its imports.The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday that civil unrest and dwindling foreign exchange reserves meant Egypt could have serious food security concerns. Its import requirements next year would be equal to this year, it said.Since Mursi was toppled last week, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have promised $12 billion in cash, loans and fuel, which economists say buys Cairo several months of breathing room to fix its finances.Egypt had halted its purchases of international wheat since February - its longest absence from the market in years - until the eve of Mursi's overthrow, when the state grain buying agency, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), bought wheat under Ouda's instruction.
"In spite of all the political differences between the parties, the international price of wheat was very nice, we bought about 180,000 tonnes of wheat," Ouda said.
DOMESTIC STOCKS
Apart from imports, Ouda said the government had bought 3.7 million tonnes of home-grown wheat from a harvest that is now finishing. It still has 3 million tonnes of domestic wheat left in its stores, having begun milling the domestic crop in May.Egypt normally mixes its domestic wheat with equal parts foreign wheat to produce flour. Ouda said Mursi's government had tried to increase the ratio of domestic wheat, which would make the country less dependent on imports."Our plan was to increase the contribution of the local wheat. We hoped to reach 60 percent," Ouda said.Mursi's government said on June 26 it had 3.613 million tonnes of total wheat but did not reveal how much of that was imported.Mamdouh Abdel Fattah, vice chairman of GASC, was quoted on Thursday by state media as saying Egypt's total wheat stocks were enough to last until November. However, he too did not say how much of that was imported.He later said GASC was unlikely to buy wheat from the international market any time soon."I would like to say I am confident we have enough stocks and hence it is unlikely we buy from the international market soon, especially with the current increase in prices," Abdel Fattah told Reuters.Earlier this week a report issued by a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) attache in Egypt said domestic wheat stocks would last through October at current consumption levels. It gave no estimate for when foreign wheat would run out.In the past, Egypt maintained stocks of both imported and local wheat that would cover at least six months' needs.The USDA attache's report said it takes Egypt 2-3 months from announcing a tender to getting the wheat distributed to flour mills.
While the Gulf Arab states' cash injection is expected to help Egypt replenish its wheat stocks, it will need to start buying soon and in large quantities."I think the aim of the Arab countries is to make sure Egypt doesn't fail with respect to food security and financial commitments with the international banking system, so I would think they will push to get the aid through quickly," said Kisan Gunjal, economist and food emergency Officer at the FAO.(Additional reporting by Maha El Dahan in Abu Dhabi, James Mackenzie in Rome and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo; Editing by Peter Graff)
I THOUGHT HELICOPTER BEN WAS FIRED.OVIOUSLY NOT THE STIMULUS FREE CASH CONTINUES FROM BERNANKES FREE PRINTING PRESS.SO BERNANKE WILL BE BUSY WITH HIS COPTER DELIVERING ALL THAT ENDLESS FREE CASH AGAIN.AND SINCE IT WILL BE ENDLESS.THE INFLATION AND SKY ROCKETING FOOD PRICE WILL BE RAMPANT NOW.
LONDON (AP) — Global stocks rose Thursday after Federal
Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke promised to keep supporting the U.S.
economy.Bernanke said the U.S. needs "highly accommodative
monetary policy" — or low interest rates — "for the foreseeable future."
That reassured investors who were dismayed by Bernanke's comments last
month that the Fed would likely slow its bond purchases later this year
and end them around mid-2014 if the economy strengthens. Critics said
the Fed bungled its communications strategy.
The Fed has been buying $85 billion of financial assets a month to keep interest rates low and encourage borrowing and spending. That stimulus has driven global stocks higher, so the prospect of reducing it caused market volatility in recent weeks."In one short and sweet statement, Federal Reserve chairman Bernanke has flicked a switch on the markets," said strategist Evan Lucas of Australia's IG Markets in a report.In Europe, Germany's DAX rose 1.14 percent to 8,158.80 and France's CAC-40 gained 0.7 percent to 3,868.98. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.6 percent to 6,543.41.Commodity stocks were the big gainers, as the promise of more support to the U.S. economy, the world's largest, suggested greater demand from consumers and industry. Oil rose to trade briefly above $107 a barrel, near the highest level in more than a year, before easing back down. After soaring $2.99 the day before, it was down $1.80 on Thursday, at $104.72.
Wall Street opened higher, adding to the previous day's gains. The Dow was up 0.9 percent at 15,423 while the broader S&P 500 was 1 percent higher at 1,669.50.A rise in U.S. jobless claims figures — by 16,000 to a total of 360,000 — failed to move markets much. The level is consistent with steady hiring, though the increase suggests the recovery is still not as fast as hoped.In Asia, gains were stronger than anywhere else. The Shanghai Composite Index jumped 3.2 percent to 2,072.99, its biggest gain in nearly seven months, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 2.6 percent to 21.437.49. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 added 0.4 percent to 14,472.58.Markets rebounded from caution a day earlier when unexpectedly weak Chinese trade figures that suggested the world's second-largest economy is slowing more abruptly than forecast.Elsewhere, Taiwan's Taiex gained 1.8 percent to 8,154.05 and Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.8 percent to 4,940.20. Markets in Singapore, Manila and Jakarta also rose.In currency markets, the dollar stabilized after falling on expectations that the Fed's monetary policy will remain loose for the time being. Looser monetary policy tends to weaken a country's currency.The dollar was trading at 99.07 yen compared with late Wednesday's 98.83 yen. The euro was down almost 1 percent, at $1.3016 from $1.3140.___Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.
The insertion of article 116 b regarding the theft of documents, to Vatican City State law, will ensure that anyone who leaks confidential information – as happened in the case of the poison pen letter writer – will get between 6 months to 2 years imprisonment. Some sentences can even extend to 8 years. “If the stolen document is highly important and confidential, sentences can be raised to between 4 and 8 years,” said Giuseppe Dalla Torre, President of the Vatican Tribunal. In a press conference he explained that the new regulations are meant to be “in line with international norms.”Another section of the legislation introduces a list of crimes against humanity, which has been given a separate title and outlines punishments for crimes such as genocide and apartheid “following broadly the definitions adopted in the 1998 Statute of the International Criminal Court,” Vatican Radio reports.The new regulations for the reform of the Vatican criminal code – which will come into force on 1 September – are not in response to the Moneyval report. “There are other laws currently being prepared, which are not linked to criminal law but are a response to Moneyval’s requests,” said Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi.
The Francis revolution: No flattery, no valets, no pomp, no ceremony
A little less talk and a lot more action: Francis’ grand reform of the Vatican bank and Secretariat of State
U.S. Navy ships in Red Sea move close to Egypt as precaution
Reuters – 3 hours ago-july 11,13WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. Navy ships patrolling in the Middle East moved closer to Egypt's Red Sea coast in recent days, the top Marine Corps general said on Thursday, in what appeared to be a precautionary move after the military overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi.The United States often sends Navy vessels close to countries in turmoil in case it needs to protect or evacuate U.S. citizens or take part in humanitarian assistance. Their presence does not necessarily mean the United States is preparing to carry out military action."Egypt is (in) a crisis right now," Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos told the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. "When that happens, what we owe the senior leadership of our nation are some options," Amos said. He did not say what the options were.U.S. Navy and Marine Corp officials said the two ships, part of a three-ship amphibious readiness group, had been in the region since May, patrolling the Red Sea, Horn of Africa, the Gulf and the Arabian Sea, and that there were no new orders to prepare for a possible conflict in Egypt.Washington has walked a careful line, neither welcoming Mursi's removal last week nor denouncing it as a "coup." U.S. defense officials on Wednesday said they still planned to send four F-16 fighter jets to the Egyptian government as planned in coming weeks.
Amos said the USS San Antonio, an amphibious transport dock, and the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship, had moved further north in the Red Sea two or three nights ago to better respond if needed.
U.S. Marine Corps officials said moving amphibious ships closer to shore would enable easier movement of helicopters and other equipment, if it were needed."Why? Because we don't know what's going to happen," he said.Navy officials said the third ship in the group, the USS Carter Hall, remained off the coast of Bahrain in the Gulf.(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Alistair Bell and David Storey)
FAMINE
EZEKIEL 5:16
16 When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:
REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.(A DAYS WAGES FOR A LOAF OF BREAD)
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Exclusive: Egypt has less than two months imported wheat left: ex-minister
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has less than two months' supply of imported wheat left in its stocks, ousted President Mohamed Mursi's minister of supplies said, revealing a shortage more acute than previously disclosed.Speaking to Reuters near midnight in a tent at a vigil where thousands of Mursi supporters are protesting against the Islamist president's removal, former Minister of Supplies Bassem Ouda said the state had just 500,000 tonnes of imported wheat left. Egypt usually imports about 10 million tonnes a year.Two and a half years of political turmoil have caused a deep economic crisis in Egypt, scaring away investors and tourists, draining foreign currency reserves and making it difficult to maintain imports of food and fuel.Egypt is the world's largest importer of wheat, half of which it distributes to its 84 million people in the form of heavily subsidized saucer-sized flat loaves of bread, which sell for less than 1 U.S. cent.Bread has long been a sensitive issue in Egypt. Former President Hosni Mubarak faced unrest in 2008 when the rising price of wheat caused shortages.Although it also grows its own wheat, Egypt needs huge quantities of foreign wheat with higher gluten content to make flour suitable for bread.The ousted government closely guarded figures about its foreign grain stores even as a shortage of cash halted its imports.The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday that civil unrest and dwindling foreign exchange reserves meant Egypt could have serious food security concerns. Its import requirements next year would be equal to this year, it said.Since Mursi was toppled last week, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have promised $12 billion in cash, loans and fuel, which economists say buys Cairo several months of breathing room to fix its finances.Egypt had halted its purchases of international wheat since February - its longest absence from the market in years - until the eve of Mursi's overthrow, when the state grain buying agency, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), bought wheat under Ouda's instruction.
"In spite of all the political differences between the parties, the international price of wheat was very nice, we bought about 180,000 tonnes of wheat," Ouda said.
DOMESTIC STOCKS
Apart from imports, Ouda said the government had bought 3.7 million tonnes of home-grown wheat from a harvest that is now finishing. It still has 3 million tonnes of domestic wheat left in its stores, having begun milling the domestic crop in May.Egypt normally mixes its domestic wheat with equal parts foreign wheat to produce flour. Ouda said Mursi's government had tried to increase the ratio of domestic wheat, which would make the country less dependent on imports."Our plan was to increase the contribution of the local wheat. We hoped to reach 60 percent," Ouda said.Mursi's government said on June 26 it had 3.613 million tonnes of total wheat but did not reveal how much of that was imported.Mamdouh Abdel Fattah, vice chairman of GASC, was quoted on Thursday by state media as saying Egypt's total wheat stocks were enough to last until November. However, he too did not say how much of that was imported.He later said GASC was unlikely to buy wheat from the international market any time soon."I would like to say I am confident we have enough stocks and hence it is unlikely we buy from the international market soon, especially with the current increase in prices," Abdel Fattah told Reuters.Earlier this week a report issued by a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) attache in Egypt said domestic wheat stocks would last through October at current consumption levels. It gave no estimate for when foreign wheat would run out.In the past, Egypt maintained stocks of both imported and local wheat that would cover at least six months' needs.The USDA attache's report said it takes Egypt 2-3 months from announcing a tender to getting the wheat distributed to flour mills.
While the Gulf Arab states' cash injection is expected to help Egypt replenish its wheat stocks, it will need to start buying soon and in large quantities."I think the aim of the Arab countries is to make sure Egypt doesn't fail with respect to food security and financial commitments with the international banking system, so I would think they will push to get the aid through quickly," said Kisan Gunjal, economist and food emergency Officer at the FAO.(Additional reporting by Maha El Dahan in Abu Dhabi, James Mackenzie in Rome and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo; Editing by Peter Graff)
I THOUGHT HELICOPTER BEN WAS FIRED.OVIOUSLY NOT THE STIMULUS FREE CASH CONTINUES FROM BERNANKES FREE PRINTING PRESS.SO BERNANKE WILL BE BUSY WITH HIS COPTER DELIVERING ALL THAT ENDLESS FREE CASH AGAIN.AND SINCE IT WILL BE ENDLESS.THE INFLATION AND SKY ROCKETING FOOD PRICE WILL BE RAMPANT NOW.
Bernanke stimulus promise drives markets higher
The Fed has been buying $85 billion of financial assets a month to keep interest rates low and encourage borrowing and spending. That stimulus has driven global stocks higher, so the prospect of reducing it caused market volatility in recent weeks."In one short and sweet statement, Federal Reserve chairman Bernanke has flicked a switch on the markets," said strategist Evan Lucas of Australia's IG Markets in a report.In Europe, Germany's DAX rose 1.14 percent to 8,158.80 and France's CAC-40 gained 0.7 percent to 3,868.98. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.6 percent to 6,543.41.Commodity stocks were the big gainers, as the promise of more support to the U.S. economy, the world's largest, suggested greater demand from consumers and industry. Oil rose to trade briefly above $107 a barrel, near the highest level in more than a year, before easing back down. After soaring $2.99 the day before, it was down $1.80 on Thursday, at $104.72.
Wall Street opened higher, adding to the previous day's gains. The Dow was up 0.9 percent at 15,423 while the broader S&P 500 was 1 percent higher at 1,669.50.A rise in U.S. jobless claims figures — by 16,000 to a total of 360,000 — failed to move markets much. The level is consistent with steady hiring, though the increase suggests the recovery is still not as fast as hoped.In Asia, gains were stronger than anywhere else. The Shanghai Composite Index jumped 3.2 percent to 2,072.99, its biggest gain in nearly seven months, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 2.6 percent to 21.437.49. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 added 0.4 percent to 14,472.58.Markets rebounded from caution a day earlier when unexpectedly weak Chinese trade figures that suggested the world's second-largest economy is slowing more abruptly than forecast.Elsewhere, Taiwan's Taiex gained 1.8 percent to 8,154.05 and Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.8 percent to 4,940.20. Markets in Singapore, Manila and Jakarta also rose.In currency markets, the dollar stabilized after falling on expectations that the Fed's monetary policy will remain loose for the time being. Looser monetary policy tends to weaken a country's currency.The dollar was trading at 99.07 yen compared with late Wednesday's 98.83 yen. The euro was down almost 1 percent, at $1.3016 from $1.3140.___Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.
07/11/2013 VATICAN INSIDER
Francis abolishes life imprisonment and raises penalties against abuse
A courtroom in the Vatican Tribunal
The Pope has introduced an important reform to the Vatican criminal justice system, involving tougher penalties for crimes committed against children
Alessandro Speciale vatican city “In our times, the common good is increasingly threatened by transnational organized crime, the improper use of the markets and of the economy, as well as by terrorism.”Pope Francis said this in his Motu Proprio on criminal law matters and administrative sanctions within Vatican City State and the Holy See, issued today. The Pope said it is “necessary for the international community to adopt adequate legal instruments to prevent and counter criminal activities, by promoting international judicial cooperation on criminal matters.”In his Apostolic Letter Motu Proprio, Francis explains that the purpose of it is to “renew the Apostolic See’s commitment to cooperate to these ends.”No changes have been made to the legislation since the Vatican City State based its criminal system on the former Italian criminal code (known as the Zanardelli Code) in 1929, after the Lateran Treaty was signed, creating the Vatican City State. This is why Benedict XVI’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele, was only charged with theft. This was the only offence he could be tried for under the Vatican law in force at the time, given that attacks against State security were not listed as an offence.In the Supplementary Norms on Criminal Law Matters introduced today Pope Francis provided a broader definition of the category of crimes against minors, “including: the sale of children, child prostitution, the recruitment of children, sexual violence and sexual acts with children, and the production and possession of child pornography.”This is an important development in the fight against sex abuse in the Church, begun by Benedict XVI and continued by Francis, because the new rules do not just apply to officials and Roman Curia staff but to Apostolic Nuncios, the Holy See’s diplomatic corps and staff from the various organisations and institutions linked to the Holy See, regardless of whether they are on Vatican soil or not.The insertion of article 116 b regarding the theft of documents, to Vatican City State law, will ensure that anyone who leaks confidential information – as happened in the case of the poison pen letter writer – will get between 6 months to 2 years imprisonment. Some sentences can even extend to 8 years. “If the stolen document is highly important and confidential, sentences can be raised to between 4 and 8 years,” said Giuseppe Dalla Torre, President of the Vatican Tribunal. In a press conference he explained that the new regulations are meant to be “in line with international norms.”Another section of the legislation introduces a list of crimes against humanity, which has been given a separate title and outlines punishments for crimes such as genocide and apartheid “following broadly the definitions adopted in the 1998 Statute of the International Criminal Court,” Vatican Radio reports.The new regulations for the reform of the Vatican criminal code – which will come into force on 1 September – are not in response to the Moneyval report. “There are other laws currently being prepared, which are not linked to criminal law but are a response to Moneyval’s requests,” said Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi.
07/10/2013 VATICAN INSIDER
IOR: Francis activates his "alertometer"
The Vatican bank's head office
The Vatican judiciary has ordered that no documents relating to the Vatican bank are to be destoyed or tampered with
Andrea Tornielli vatican city “I am very naive about some things but there are certain other things that set my “alertometer” in action,” Jorge Mario Bergoglio once said back in the days when he was still Archbishop of Buenos Aires. His comment was in reference to cases of corruption involving clerics. Francis’ “alertometer” has certainly been activated now. Various sources have said that last 4 July, the Vatican apparently issued a regulation which prohibits anyone from destroying or tampering with documents relating to the Vatican Bank (IOR). The decision to issue said regulation was taken independently, without prior approval from the Secretariat of State. This is indicative of a new willingness to deal with more thorny issues, without settling for comfortable cover-up operations.Readers will recall that the director general of the IOR, Paolo Cipriani and his deputy, Massimo Tulli, both handed in their resignations on Monday 1 July. The decision came after the embarrassing revelation of an inquiry into APSA prelare Mgr Nunzio Scarano’s illicit use of his Vatican bank accounts to carry out risky financial operations, all of which were approved by the IOR’s directors.But in the days following the resignation, the two former managers under investigation were still to be found wandering through the bank’s corridors. Then a third person was added to the list of people under investigation: the lawyer Michele Briamonte. The presence of the two managers and the lawyer made the situation even more problematic. Briamonte, who is both the IOR and Cipriani’s lawyer, is being investigated for inside trading in the case involving Italian bank Monte dei Paschi. He was also involved in an accident which took place in recent months at Rome’s Ciampino airport, when the Guardia di Finanza, one of Italy’s law enforcement agencies, decided to search Briamonte’s luggage, just as he was getting out of his private jet, alongside one of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s secretaries. The check was not carried out in the end as Briamonte produced a Vatican diplomatic passport, claiming immunity from inspection.The IOR’s new president, Ernst von Freyberg, gave a series of interviews, giving repeated reassurance that Briamonte was no longer the IOR’s lawyer and that he no longer had anything to do with the bank. So why did he return several times according t some sources? And why did he return on the very day outgoing managers Cipriani and Tulli and even President Von Freyberg himself were present in the building? In light of these events, the Vatican judiciary ordered that no IOR document in any format was to be destroyed, tampered with or moved. It was a new dramatic turn of events but not the last in the recent IOR saga.That Pope Francis was never a fan of shady operations is no mystery. A prelate who follows developments in the Vatican closely, said: “One need only read an excerpt from his conversation with Rabbi Abraham Skorka in the book “On Heaven and Earth”...” In the book the prelate mentions - which has been published in a number of different languages – Bergoglio described an episode which took place shortly after his nomination as auxiliary bishop in the early 90’s, when Argentina was mired in an economic crisis and one Argentine peso was worth one U.S. dollar. “Two officials came to look for me at the vicar’s residence in Flores, saying they had some money to donate to the poor. They said they were fervent Catholics and handed 400 thousand pesos over to me to invest in charity works in the local poor neighbourhoods. I am a very naive when it comes to some things but on other occasions my “alertometer” is activated. And that time it worked,” the cardinal said.Bergoglio asked for more details about the projects and the officials ended up telling him that they were only going to give him half of the 400 thousand pesos he was about to sign a receipt for. The future Pope found a clever way out: Since the local vicar’s residences don’t have bank accounts and neither did Bergoglio, he told them they should pay the money directly to the curia, which did not take donations in cash. After that, the two men disappeared. The fact that they were so confident about that this working means another cleric must have tried it before, Francis concluded in the book.All one needed to do was to listen to the new Pope describe his dream of “a poor Church for the poor” to realise that he intended to carry Benedict XVI’s transparency work through to the end. Some cardinals were dissatisfied by the explanations Cardinal Bertone gave to them about the workings of the Vatican bank, during the pre-Conclave general congregations. It was clear to everyone that reforms needed to be made in the Vatican bank as well. In recent months it became apparent that the monitoring system put in place to keep a check on the activities of the IOR was and is not working, despite the reassurances from Von Freyberg and Financial Information Authority director René Brülhart. So on 15 June, Francis appointed the director of St. Martha’s House, Battista Ricca as temporary Prefect of the IOR. As administrator of the residence that is currently Bergoglio’s home and given that the two often eat at the same table, Ricca is someone Francis trusts and he has authorised access to all documents relating to the Vatican bank.After Ricca’s arrival at the IOR, a number of controversial incidents ensued. The prelate, who still enjoys the Pope’s trust, has a strong attitude and does not sweeten the pill with diplomatic niceties. The delays in the screening of account holders at the Vatican bank and conforming to anti-money laundering regulations and the Italian judiciary’s inquiries into the way the bank has been managed, have made it necessary for Francis to go one step further: he personally decided to issue a papal chirograph, ordering the creation of a commission of inquiry, headed by Cardinal Raffaele Farina. The commission is to dig deep into the activities of the Vatican bank and report its findings directly to the Pope. At the end of the investigation the commission is to hand all documentation gathered, over to Francis.Before he begins reforming, Bergoglio wants to get a clear idea of the IOR’s situation and above all he wants to get to eradicate the current system as well as get to the bottom of who is responsible for the bank’s woes.The Francis revolution: No flattery, no valets, no pomp, no ceremony
A little less talk and a lot more action: Francis’ grand reform of the Vatican bank and Secretariat of State
