Francis and the Bank

The following story was texted to me with the question: "I wonder what Frank would say about this?" I read the article and found that the Church in all its efforts under Pope Francis has not yet put its house in order.

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?=id19518452

Not for not trying. This Pope has, since his election in March, tried very hard to fix the wrongs of the last few decades and earlier. He has inspired many Catholics and non-Catholics alike, the same as Blessed John Paul II did in the early days of his papacy.

Many look to this Pope as the last opportunity to save the Church from its own misfortunes and misdeeds. He even, two days before this scandal broke, set up a commission to deal with corruption in the Vatican Bank.

Let's face it. Clergy should not be bankers. You would think the Church would have learned that lesson in 1974, when Michele Sindona, while helping the bank make investments, nearly brought down the Vatican Bank, and caused the collapse of Franklin National Bank on Long Island.

Due to its involvement with Mr Sindona, a consortium of European banks formed in the Netherlands to create European American Bank (EAB), as a subsidiary of ABN-AMRO. EAB then bought the assets of Franklin and assumed the liabilities. On a Friday afternoon in February, 1974, Franklin closed at 3pm and reopened the following Monday as European American Bank. There was no loss of depositors' money, though the stockholders did lose huge sums for that time.

My point here is this: the Church didn't learn its lesson from that time in history.  Perhaps now Pope Francis can do what is necessary to clean house. He certainly has shown he deserves the opportunity to do so. And also, perhaps Pope Francis will use the money and assets it has on hand to do right by the poor and help them in their plight.

To me, that would be the surest sign that the Catholic Church had recovered its Christian mission. By doing this, Francis would achieve a status that even John Paul didn't: the Healer of Humanity. But he is so humble, he probably, no definitely, would not accept that accolade.

I discussed some of what the new Pope needed to do at the time of his election and his first months of his papacy in my commentary of March 13, 2013 called Art, Life and the Papacy. Hopefully, Francis can succeed.