Catholic News Service published briefs on the following topics: Vatican bank profit; God’s consolation gift; and Subdean of College of Cardinals.
Vatican bank reports $40 million profit in 2016
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Institute for the Works of Religion, often referred to as the Vatican bank, made a profit of 36 million euros (about $40 million) in 2016, according to its annual report. The institute held assets worth 5.7 billion euros at year’s end, which included deposits and investments from close to 15,000 clients — mostly Catholic religious orders around the world, Vatican offices and employees, and Catholic clergy. Before the report’s release, the 2016 financial statements were audited by the firm Deloitte & Touche and were reviewed by the Commission of Cardinals overseeing the institute’s work. According to a statement from the bank June 12, all of the profits will be turned over to the Holy See, with none being placed in the institute’s reserve account. According to the report, most of the institute’s clients “are active in missions or perform charitable works at institutions such as schools, hospitals or refugee camps.” That work is conducted all over the world, including “in countries with very basic infrastructure and underdeveloped banking and payment systems,” which means they rely on the institute, particularly in transferring donations from wealthier nations to poorer ones.
God’s consolation is a gift and mission of service, Pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — True consolation is a gift that cannot be received or given by warmongers, the unmerciful and the closed-hearted, Pope Francis said. Celebrating morning Mass June 12, the Pope reflected on St. Matthew’s account of the Beatitudes in which Jesus proclaims blessings on those who are meek, poor in spirit and “clean of heart.” The experience of consolation that Jesus proclaims, he said, is “a spiritual experience” that only comes when Christians open their hearts to God’s love rather than close them and focus on their own selfish deeds and desires. “Those dirty of heart, those who make war not peace, and those who are never criticized or persecuted for fighting for justice because they do not care about the injustice suffered by other people: these are closed,” the Pope said. True consolation comes only from God or from another person, he said. What is self-produced is “just looking at a mirror — trying to put on makeup — to keep up appearances.”
Cardinal Re chosen subdean of College of Cardinals
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis approved the election of Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 83, as subdean of the College of Cardinals. He replaces 94-year-old French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, who moved in January to a home for retired priests in Bayonne, France, and asked to be relieved of his role as the second-in-charge in the body of cardinals. The Vatican announced the Pope’s approval of Cardinal Re’s election June 10. The dean of the college is Italian Cardinal Angelo Sodano, 89, who was elected to the post in 2005 to succeed Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was elected Pope Benedict XVI. When a Pope dies, the dean informs heads of state and diplomats accredited to the Holy See. He presides over the meetings of the entire College of Cardinals in the days preceding a conclave to elect a new Pope. And, if he is under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to vote in the conclave, he presides over the actual election in the Sistine Chapel.