Vatican City, Oct 2, 2019 / 12:43 pm (CNA).- An Italian news magazine has reported that five Vatican employees have been suspended following an Oct. 1 raid of offices within the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.
An Oct. 2 internal memo from the government of the Vatican City State conveyed that the five employees have been “suspended from service.” The memo was published by L’Espresso.
Among the apparently suspended employees is Msgr. Mauro Carlino, who oversees documentation at the Secretariat of State, along with layman Tomasso Di Ruzza, director of the Vatican’s Financial Intelligence Authority.
Two other men and one woman are also listed as suspended.
The suspensions follow an Oct. 1 raid authorized by prosecutors in the Vatican City court system.
Documents and devices were taken in connection to an investigation following complaints made last summer by the Institute for Religious Works - commonly called the Vatican Bank - and the Office of the Auditor General, concerning a series of financial transactions "carried out over time," an Oct. 1 Vatican statement said.
The Secretariat of State is the central governing office of the Catholic Church and the department of the Roman Curia which works most closely with the pope. It is also responsible for the governance of the Vatican City state.
The suspension memo says that Carlino will continue to live at the Domus Sanctae Martha, the residence at which Pope Francis also lives, and that the suspended employees can enter Vatican City State to access health services, or if a Vatican magistrate approves their admission.
The Vatican’s Financial Intelligence Authority oversees suspicious financial transactions, and is charged with ensuring that Vatican banking policies comply with international financial standards.
Pope Francis approved new governing documents for the Vatican Bank last summer, transitioning the bank from its practice of using internal auditors to the use of an external auditor to review the bank’s finances and transactions. The bank has a long history of complex financial transactions, has faced scandals, and been criticized for a lack of financial transparency.
The pope has made reforms at the Vatican Bank a priority of his pontificate.