Bishop Nunzio Galantino Vatican bishop: Ethics committee will guide future investments
A Vatican bishop has said that a committee of outside professionals is being created to help keep Holy See investments both ethical and profitable.
Bishop Nunzio Galantino, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), said November 19 that statutes for a new “Investment Committee” were waiting to be approved.
The committee of “high-profile external professionals” will work with the Council for the Economy and the Secretariat for the Economy to “guarantee the ethical nature of investments, inspired by the social doctrine of the Church, and at the same time, their profitability,” Bishop Galantino told the Italian magazine Famiglia Cristiana.
Earlier this month, Pope Francis asked that investment funds be moved out of the Secretariat of State and into APSA, Bishop Galantino’s office.
APSA, which functions as the Holy See’s treasury and sovereign wealth manager, administers payroll and operating expenses for Vatican City. It also oversees its own investments. It is now in the process of taking over the financial funds and real estate assets which were, until now, administered by the Secretariat of State.
World leaders must not use pandemic for political gain, Pope says
Government leaders and authorities must not exploit the Covid-19 pandemic to discredit political rivals but instead set aside differences to find “viable solutions for our people,” Pope Francis said.
In a video message November 19 to participants at a virtual seminar about the coronavirus pandemic in Latin America, the Pope said leaders should not “encourage or endorse or use mechanisms that make this serious crisis a tool of an electoral or social nature. Discrediting the other only succeeds in destroying the possibility of finding agreements that help alleviate the effects of the pandemic in our communities, especially on the most excluded,” the Pope said.
“Who pays (the price) for this process of discrediting?” he asked. “The people pay for it; we progress in discrediting the other at the expense of the poorest, at the expense of the people.” Elected officials and public servants, he added, are called to “be at the service of the common good and not place the common good at the service of their interests.”
Pope to Passionists: Renew mission with gestures of love and gratitude
The Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ, commonly known as the Passionists, was founded in Italy by Saint Paul of the Cross on 21 November 1720.
As the religious order celebrates its third centenary, Pope Francis wrote a message to the Superior General, Fr. Joachim Rego, C.P.
Reflecting on their charism of living and proclaiming the memory of Christ’s Passion, the Pope urged the Passionists to adapt their mission “towards new apostolic goals”.
He said humanity is experiencing a “spiral of changes” that call into question the “intimate constitution of its being”.
“You too,” he said, “are asked to identify new lifestyles and new forms of language in order to proclaim the love of the Crucified One, thus giving witness to the heart of your identity”.
Pope Francis encouraged the Passionists to implement the commitment they made at their recent General Chapter to renew their mission on the basis of “gratitude, prophecy, and hope”.
Gratitude, said the Pope, “is the experience of remembering the past within the context of the Magnificat and walking toward the future with a Eucharistic attitude”.
The Passionists, he added, can find happiness and fulfilment in contemplating and proclaiming Christ’s outpouring of love on the cross.