The Catholic Weekly 10 January 2021

$2 This is a complex web of issues involving actions both in Rome and in Australia ... There are many legitimate questions remaining unanswered.” Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells CALLS ON authorities to get to the bottom of mystery funds transferred from the Vatican to Australia are grow- ing both inside and outside the church. As Australia’s bishops are considering requesting in- formation from the local fi- nancial watchdog AUSTRAC, a source close to the Vatican told The Catholic Weekly that it was “completely implausi- ble” that $2.3 billion dollars in Vatican funds could have been transferred here from Rome between 2014 and 2020. Last October the Holy See released a detailed 2019 fi- nancial statement showing its net equity of 1.4 billion euros (A$2.2 billion), or 4 billion (A$6.3 billion) taking into ac- count the Vatican Museums, the Vatican bank and other sources of assets and funds. It closed the year with an 11.1 million euro (A$17.7 mil- lion) deficit. “It is completely implausi- ble that these would be legit- imate flows of Church-based funds because they don’t have it [to spend],” the source said. “This is completely in- consistent with the financial information the Vatican has published, while its improved financial policies signed by Pope Francis in 2014 require any investments to be com- pletely disclosed. “Given the suspicious na- ture of these transfers they certainly warrant further in- vestigation.” Since last October Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravan- ti-Wells pursued an alleged transfer of A$1.14million from the Vatican to Australia from around the time of the inves- tigation into Cardinal George Pell for historical sexual abuse offences, of which he was later cleared by an unanimous de- cision of the High Court. The chair of the Federal Govern- ment’s Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Delegated Legislation sought informa- tion from AUSTRAC, the Aus- tralian Federal Police (AFP), and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade about the nature of the transfers and local investigations and co- operation with the Vatican’s own ongoing investigations into financial corruption and mismanagement. The discovery reported by AUSTRAC in December of mystery transfers totalling more than $2 billion raises even more questions. “This is a complex web of issues involving actions both in Rome and in Australia,” Senator Fierravanti-Wells told The Catholic Weekly . “There are many legiti- mate questions remaining unanswered including from Vatican authorities, AFP, AUS- TRAC and most especially, from Victorian police and ju- dicial authorities. “Transparency and ac- countability of these institu- tions to the Australian public require that the matters be pursued.” President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Archbishop Mark Coleridge told The Australian that the bishops may also ask Aus- tralia’s AUSTRAC to reveal whether any of the funds sent from Vatican City in 47,000 separate transactions went to Catholic organisations in Aus- tralia. He said that the bishops did not know about the transfers until December, were “aston- ished” at their scale and will request an investigation from Pope Francis into how they occurred without the bishops’ knowledge. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 ¾ Marilyn Rodrigues 10, January, 2021 NOTES FROM A PICKETT LINE P15 WHAT MASS FIGURES ARE TELLING US P10 The mystery of the missing $2.3 billion Storm clouds hang above St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican in this 2014 file photo. PHOTO: CNS/PAUL HARING Howwere billions of dollars transferred from the Vatican to Australia from 2014 and no-one knew about it? And why? Experts say it’s essential authorities get to the bottomof what really transpired ...