Vatican Bank

Pope Francis, moving quickly to fill a top financial position left vacant by an ongoing scandal, on Wednesday named a senior official from the Bank of Italy to head the Vatican's financial regulator.

A European body that combats money laundering and terrorist financing today told the Vatican to start prosecuting people found to have used its scandal-hit bank and asset management body for criminal ends.

Pope Francis is determined to forge ahead with his reform of the Catholic Church despite an embarrassing leak scandal which risks undermining his clean-up bid, according to the pontiff's chief of staff.

Pope Francis on Friday deplored the "escalation of violence affecting innocent civilians" in the Middle East, from Syria to Iraq, Jerusalem and the West Bank, and urged the international community to act.

The Vatican bank's stepped-up internal monitoring has led to a sharp rise in suspicious transaction reports -- from just six in 2012 to 202 in 2013 and collaboration with foreign financial authorities has increased sharply.

A commission looking into the Vatican bank briefed Pope Francis and top cardinals on its findings on Tuesday ahead of a papal decision about what to do with the institution that has embarrassed the Holy See for decades.

Pope Francis's bid to take the scandal-dogged Vatican bank in hand has stepped up a gear, experts said on Tuesday, with the ousting of top management from the institution following the launch of a special papal probe.

A senior Catholic cleric with connections to the Vatican bank was arrested on Friday for plotting to help rich friends smuggle tens of millions of euros in cash into Italy from Switzerland, in the latest blow to the Vatican's image.

A priest has been arrested on suspicion of fraud and corruption in connection with the sweeping probe of the scandal-plagued Vatican bank, Italian media reported today.

Pope Francis has named a commission of inquiry to look into the activities of the troubled Vatican bank amid a fresh money-laundering investigation and questions about what exactly goes on inside the secretive institution.

Pope Francis lamented that investment losses by banks trigger more alarm in the economic crisis than the struggle of people to feed their families, as he led a huge rally on Saturday to invigorate the church's moral conscience, hours after he held talks at the Vatican about the economic crisis with Germany's leader.

Pope Benedict XVI has signed off on one of the last major appointments of his papacy, approving a German lawyer to head the Vatican's embattled bank.

The Vatican has said that the head of its bank, who is being investigated in a money laundering case, has been ousted after receiving a unanimous vote of no-confidence from bank overseers.

This is no ordinary bank: The ATMs are in Latin. Priests use a private entrance. A life-size portrait of Pope Benedict XVI hangs on the wall.Nevertheless, the Institute for Religious Works is a bank, and it's under harsh new scrutiny in a case involving money-laundering allegations that led police to seize Euro 23 million ($30 million) in Vatican a...

Italian monetary authorities said on Tuesday that they had impounded $30 million from the Vatican bank and placed its top two officers under investigation in connection with a money-laundering inquiry. The announcement amounted to another potential storm confronting the papacy of Benedict XVI, who is struggling with the effects of a priestly abuse ...

Pope Francis, moving quickly to fill a top financial position left vacant by an ongoing scandal, on Wednesday named a senior official from the Bank of Italy to head the Vatican's financial regulator.

A European body that combats money laundering and terrorist financing today told the Vatican to start prosecuting people found to have used its scandal-hit bank and asset management body for criminal ends.

Pope Francis is determined to forge ahead with his reform of the Catholic Church despite an embarrassing leak scandal which risks undermining his clean-up bid, according to the pontiff's chief of staff.

Pope Francis on Friday deplored the "escalation of violence affecting innocent civilians" in the Middle East, from Syria to Iraq, Jerusalem and the West Bank, and urged the international community to act.

The Vatican bank's stepped-up internal monitoring has led to a sharp rise in suspicious transaction reports -- from just six in 2012 to 202 in 2013 and collaboration with foreign financial authorities has increased sharply.

A commission looking into the Vatican bank briefed Pope Francis and top cardinals on its findings on Tuesday ahead of a papal decision about what to do with the institution that has embarrassed the Holy See for decades.

Pope Francis's bid to take the scandal-dogged Vatican bank in hand has stepped up a gear, experts said on Tuesday, with the ousting of top management from the institution following the launch of a special papal probe.

A senior Catholic cleric with connections to the Vatican bank was arrested on Friday for plotting to help rich friends smuggle tens of millions of euros in cash into Italy from Switzerland, in the latest blow to the Vatican's image.

A priest has been arrested on suspicion of fraud and corruption in connection with the sweeping probe of the scandal-plagued Vatican bank, Italian media reported today.

Pope Francis has named a commission of inquiry to look into the activities of the troubled Vatican bank amid a fresh money-laundering investigation and questions about what exactly goes on inside the secretive institution.

Pope Francis lamented that investment losses by banks trigger more alarm in the economic crisis than the struggle of people to feed their families, as he led a huge rally on Saturday to invigorate the church's moral conscience, hours after he held talks at the Vatican about the economic crisis with Germany's leader.

Pope Benedict XVI has signed off on one of the last major appointments of his papacy, approving a German lawyer to head the Vatican's embattled bank.

The Vatican has said that the head of its bank, who is being investigated in a money laundering case, has been ousted after receiving a unanimous vote of no-confidence from bank overseers.

This is no ordinary bank: The ATMs are in Latin. Priests use a private entrance. A life-size portrait of Pope Benedict XVI hangs on the wall.Nevertheless, the Institute for Religious Works is a bank, and it's under harsh new scrutiny in a case involving money-laundering allegations that led police to seize Euro 23 million ($30 million) in Vatican a...

Italian monetary authorities said on Tuesday that they had impounded $30 million from the Vatican bank and placed its top two officers under investigation in connection with a money-laundering inquiry. The announcement amounted to another potential storm confronting the papacy of Benedict XVI, who is struggling with the effects of a priestly abuse ...