A nice butterfly
Yeah, 19000 bank accounts with 7 billion euros in assets. I would say such a thing sounds incredibly ahrd to administrate. I do not envy whoever gets the job to do it but some consolidation sounds like it is in order.
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes
V
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Then again, every diocese probably has its own Bank Account, along with some set aside for administration and charity. The number soon builds up. And for some accounts, it might not be possible to consolidate them, especially across borders.
edited 3rd Mar '15 8:14:12 AM by Greenmantle
Keep Rolling On
Zzzzzzzzzz
The Vatican Bank was originally set up to maintain accounts for members of the clergy and inter-Church organizations which would otherwise have difficulty getting an account in a reliable bank— predominantly missions and missionaries.
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
A nice butterfly
Well, I gave the links of the declarations from the Holy See. I do not know and can only speculate as to WHAT is it they are trying to do, but it does seem like they are trying to do SOMETHING about their finances.
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes
The Wanderer
Cardinal Egan, retired N.Y. archbishop, dies at 82
Though I tend to stay out of OTC, I may actually start posting here since I'm converting to Catholicism. So hi everybody.
Hi and welcome to the Catholic world.
Seconded. Welcome, Finger Puppet.
NOT THE BEES
Indiana Solo
Hullo!
I'm baaaaaaack
A nice butterfly
The Pope calls out for theologists to stop accumulating data without knowing what to do with it. In a letter to U.C.A (Argentinian Catholic University) he refers to the role of theologists in the modern world in the following words.
NOTE: I am quoting because the format in which I found it is one that splits in half, so I am quoting it here to present it fully, and at the end add the link of its source
"May theology", the Pope goes on, “be the embodiment of a Church that is a ‘field hospital’, that lives its mission of salvation and healing in the world. Mercy is not merely a pastoral attitude, it is the very substance of Jesus’ Gospel. I encourage you to learn how the centrality of mercy may be reflected in the different disciplines - dogmatic theology, ethics, spirituality, law, and so on”. “Without mercy - he warns -, our theology, our law, our pastoral work risk collapsing into bureaucratic meanness or into ideology, which, by its very nature, wants to tame mystery. Understanding theology means understanding God, who is Love”. Likewise, a theological student, Pope Francis points out, “not an ‘old fossil’ of a theologian, who crams up data and information about the Revelation without really knowing what to do with them. Neither a ‘balconero’ of history. He must be instead “someone who knows how to build humanity around himself, how to convey God’s Christian truth in a truly human dimension, and not a talentless intellectual, a no-good ethicist or a bureaucrat of holiness”.
edited 9th Mar '15 9:49:01 AM by Aszur
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes
United Earth
This applies to the whole of Academia.
It literally brought tears to my eyes.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Eh, theology is a difficult subject and no academic would profess to be a part of that unless they were a member of that organization, like a priest in the Church or a minister in a congregation.
Theology does have the chance to be a reputable subject, but most people lack the self discipline and those who do will go for Religious Studies, sociology, anthropology, or what not.
I like what the pope is saying, but I would also like for him to push his people to use their other skills more and not through a Catholic lens only. They need to be working together with the viewpoints, not just picking one.
"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur
I think I understand what Francis is saying, but it's a delicate balance. Sometimes, theology is a bit like pure science: you accumulate data, not knowing whether they're useful, because sometimes you strike gold and find out something, or make a connection, that a more directed search might never have turned up. I assume he's allowing for that element of it?
It's the same reminder social psychologists have to regularly give themselves: it's not just data, it's people, too.
Detach too much, and you lose the plot. 
edited 10th Mar '15 9:51:29 AM by Euodiachloris
So I hear Francis is advocating all-out war with ISIS if all other options are exhausted. That's certainly a surprising stance, but considering the horrors that are coming out of the region, including multiple kinds of genocide (racial, religious and cultural), I imagine he's immensely frustrated about it. He's said war shouldn't be the answer, but he also likely knows that ISIS is that kind of radical force that will stop at nothing until everything it hates is completely and utterly destroyed.
Source for those who haven't heard.
I suppose ISIS actions have just surpassed the Godzilla Threshold for Pope Francis, and he's getting desperate. It's certainly shocking, since this would be the first time the Catholic Church takes direct part in actual warfare since the, what, 18th century?
"All you Fascists bound to lose."
Just because they support kicking the shit out of Da'esh, it doesn't mean that they're gonna be directly involved in the war.
They'll probably be: a) providers of logistics; b) providers of health and food services/charities for those affected by the war (particularly refugees); and c) possible mediators in the post-Da'esh climate.
edited 15th Mar '15 7:58:02 PM by Quag15
Indiana Solo
The Church has no real military anymore. I mean, they could pack up the Swiss Guards, call up the hospitalers(Knights of Malta), and see what they could hash together but I really doubt that Francis would. The Catholic Church fielding a military force against ISIS would just be asking for them to cast it as a "new crusade" which would get all parts of the world riled up for no reason.
I'm baaaaaaack
Wow: that's old school. You can really see the Jesuit... And, I like it.
The Catholic Church has been rather backward in coming forward with what it can actually do in humanitarian disasters for a long time, now (it's still been there, but "softly-softly" has mainly been the style). Personally, I think that's one reason why some of the institutional rot had a chance to embed itself so thoroughly. <_<
Time to show what it can do with what it's got, when it wishes to pull the stops out.
edited 15th Mar '15 8:06:52 PM by Euodiachloris
ISIS is (worse than) evil, mainly because the word "evil" no longer makes me think of very very bad things. Like with fictional (and real) bad people, words can be brushed with the Draco in Leather Pants effect. I can't even use the word malicious without fond thoughts of Disney's Malificent...
(looks up synonyms for evil)
They are heinous and abhorrent, and makes me want to dismiss my preference for quick painless executions. I guess I can settle for them being stripped naked, displayed in a glass cage out in public (for predetermined amount of time) before they are executed (relatively painlessly). No, I do not want anyone's tax dollars being spent in holding them prisoner til they expire of old age.
I'd settle for just bombing them too, but I prefer more accurate methods of taking them out.
Plus, as far as I'm concerned, Pope Francis is not allowed to retire. In fact, he didn't say anything about retiring at all. (sticks fingers in ears and hums loudly)
Plants are aliens, and fungi are nanomachines.
Indiana Solo
I really doubt that we're going to have a lot of popes retiring now. We've only had one retire in quite a few hundred years.
I'm baaaaaaack
The order of Malta is not dependent on the Church (though they have a cordial relationship, as observer entities in many organizations), and the Swiss Guards' job is to protect the Pope, nothing else.
edited 15th Mar '15 8:29:09 PM by Quag15
19,000? I'm no expert (to put it mildly), but at first blush that seems like a lot, even for a sovereign country's government of any size. Wonder if that's par for the course among other European governments, or if some serious consolidation is in order.