From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013
A jailed prelate’s accounts at the Vatican bank have been frozen as part of an investigation into his financial dealings, the Guardian report. According to Pope’s spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi the Promoter of Justice – an official similar to a chief prosecutor – had ordered the freezing of two accounts belonging to Monsignor Nunzio Scarano. The monsignor is accused by the Italian authorities of being the central figure in a bizarre plot to smuggle €20m (£17m) into Italy from Switzerland.
It is at the same time a group of Malay Muslim NGOs have called for the expulsion of the Vatican’s first Apostolic Nuncio to Malaysia, Archbishop Joseph Marino, for remarks attributed to him on the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims.
The group’s secretariat publicity chief Dzulkarnain Taib said Archbishop Marino should not interfere with the country’s internal affairs. “As ambassador here, he is to forge close diplomatic ties, but what he said was beyond his job scope and could be interpreted as having another agenda,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Dzulkarnain was commenting on Archbishop Marino’s remarks on Thursday that the fact-sheet presented by the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) on the use of the word “Allah” was sensible and logical.
The Islamic Missionary Foundation of Malaysia (Yadim) also expressed disappointment with Archbishop Marino’s remarks. “As a diplomat, he should be neutral on the matter and not touch on sensitive issues involving Muslims in the country,’’ said its chief Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, who called on the archbishop to withdraw his remarks and apologise to Muslims.
On the bank, the case has embarrassed the Vatican as it struggles to convince international watchdogs that its financial institutions have adequate safeguards against money-laundering. The Promoter of Justice’s move showed the Vatican was taking an active role in the affair.
But Lombardi said that it took effect on 9 July, and it was not immediately clear why the Vatican authorities had waited 10 days after Scarano’s arrest before blocking his accounts.
The monsignor, who was a banker before he became a priest, is a senior official of the Vatican’s asset management arm, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA). It is claimed that he conspired with an Italian secret service officer and a financial intermediary to repatriate the cash aboard a private jet.
In a statement to prosecutors this week, leaked to Italian media, Scarano was quoted as saying he stood to receive €2.5m for his part in the operation. He planned to spend €1m building a church in Umbria, but intended keeping the rest, at least temporarily.
He was said to have told prosecutors he regarded the remaining €1.5m as a loan “that would have enabled me to resolve certain financial problems” arising from a defunct business enterprise with a relative. Prosecutors are reported to have estimated that Scarano’s personal assets were worth around €500,000.
The prelate reportedly acknowledged that a family of Neapolitan ship owners had made monthly transfers, registered as charitable donations, to an account he held at the Vatican bank. The Italian prosecutors believe the money that was to have been brought in from Switzerland belonged to three members of the family, all brothers. Two have denied the money is theirs. The third has said nothing.
Among other unresolved aspects of the case are the amount and whereabouts of the cash. Scarano was said to have put the total at €41m, which had since been transferred to Beirut.
Though awkward in many respects, the Scarano affair has strengthened Pope Francis’s hand as he sets about cleaning up the Vatican bank, formally known as the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR). The prelate was arrested two days after Francis set up a commission to brief him on the IOR’s activities and suggest reforms.
The pope himself took part in the commission’s first meeting, which was held this week at the guest house in the Vatican where he has opted to live. Scandals shown or alleged to have involved the Vatican’s financiers have been embarrassing successive popes since 1982 when Roberto Calvi, a banker with close ties to the IOR, was found hanged beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London.
The circumstances of his death remain a mystery. Equally unclear are the reasons for the disappearance the following year of Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican employee. Prosecutors in Rome are currently taking statements from Marco Fassoni Accetti, a colourful figure with a strong resemblance to the comedian Roberto Benigni.
Fassoni Accetti claims to have helped kidnap the girl as part of a conspiracy to thwart the anti-communist activities of Pope John Paul II. In the latest of his increasingly controversial statements, he has made allegations about the names of his fellow-conspirators including discrediting the then head of the IOR, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
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Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002