The following article suggests something that every religious organization needs: Its own James Bond --or more accurately, its own James Bonds, plural. The Vatican used to have another "office," since discontinued, that of Devil's Advocate, a "detective" assigned to look into the background of everyone proposed for sainthood, to determine if there was some serious dirt in the candidate's past that would disqualify him / her for such honors. This is still a worthwhile idea even if it might be better used for other kinds of purposes. That is, it is a good idea to have an institutional role for someone to offer honest criticisms, who won't be shunned or condemned for opposing the official line on important issues. It is a positive to have someone on your team who is, in effect, paid to disagree. Call it anti-sycophant insurance. Or call it, "keeping everyone honest" insurance. But a religious group also needs its own James Bonds. Think of Westboro Baptist Church, yeah, that church, the one with all the crazies. What is not crazy at all is how the congregation sent one of its own to law school and now has a first rate legal adviser to offer counsel for all matters pertaining to the Law. In other words, there is no substitute for professional help in any field where it is important. The article is specifically about the realm of finance. In any organization of size, the existence of stockpiles of money will be a temptation to some, an opportunity to skim off the top, to steal. Or even a temptation for well-meaning leaders to think about speculation to earn even more money for a noble purpose even if it means putting millions of dollars at risk on the market. With a finance whiz on the staff, someone with requisite training and smarts, such things would not happen, at least not happen as much as it is possible for them not to happen. But there are other kinds of James Bonds that could be useful : * A religious liaison officer, someone who really knows the ins and outs of other faiths and can offer professional counsel for dealing with other religions in ecumenical organizations, in school board meetings, and so forth. * A political officer, someone who really knows how the game of politics is played, who can offer a church, etc, solid advice about what is happening politically insofar as local ( or other ) politics effects the actions of the faith in question. This official might also act as a lobbyist, someone who might visit city officials, or a representative in the state legislature or Congress, on behalf of the church / synagogue, etc. * A science officer, including some of the social sciences like demography, able to offer professional information about any issues confronting the church in which its public positions about science are controversial. That is, in all cases where someone is in the public eye, it should be regarded as essential that he / she know what the hell he / she is talking about. Think of Aiken or Mourdock, while not representing their churches, what if you had people who were doing exactly that and ended up saying equally stupid things ? A science officer could counsel members of a congregation about exactly what is scientifically valid and what is not, and help everyone avoid saying really dumb things. Or,more positively, help them say really smart things. But your church does not have such people in its ranks ? OK, then either recruit them or, like Westboro, put together a fund to send anyone in the congregation with the interest to the best available university to get a degree in such subject matter. Grow your own, so to speak. You need them, they are valuable, and it is time to recognize exactly that. Billy ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "The Vatican's James Bond" The Economist The Vatican’s financial affairs On His Holiness’s public service Can the man who cleaned up one tiny state do the same for another? Oct 20th 2012 RENÉ BRÜLHART made his name as head of Liechtenstein’s financial-intelligence unit. Thanks to his diligence in rooting out financial crime over the past eight years, the tiny European principality, nestled between Switzerland and Austria, is no longer widely condemned as a haven for dirty money. This success, combined with his good looks, led one magazine to dub the 40-year-old Swiss lawyer the James Bond of the financial world. His latest job might unnerve even 007: Mr Brülhart has been recruited to clean up the Vatican’s reputation. For years allegations of financial shenanigans have swirled around the Institute for Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican Bank. The bank is modest in size: as of last November it had just €6.3 billion ($8.3 billion) in assets, 33,400 accounts and 13 ATMs (for use by its own clients, which comprise religious organisations and individuals, Holy See lay employees and foreign countries’ embassies). But it also has features that make it alluring to money-launderers: an evaluation in July by Moneyval, the Council of Europe’s anti-money-laundering group, pointed to high volumes of cash transactions, global activities and limited information on many organisations operating in the Vatican. In the latest scandal, its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was sacked in May. He and his former employer are now caught up in a money-laundering investigation led by Naples prosecutors. Mr Gotti Tedeschi has denied wrongdoing, saying the reason he was fired was that he got “too close to the truth” about the bank’s dealings. Only in December 2010 did Pope Benedict XVI issue a so-called Motu Proprio outlawing money-laundering and the financing of terrorism. Mr Brülhart’s challenge is the same as it was in Liechtenstein: to get his client onto the all-important “white list” of territories that are deemed to comply with the standards on combating financial crime set by the OECD, a club of rich and emerging economies. First, he will need to build a financial-intelligence unit that can investigate suspicious money flows properly. The Vatican has a group that is supposed to do this but it has made little progress, not least because its people lack training. Second, he will need to create a truly independent supervising authority for the Vatican Bank and the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, which manages the Vatican’s property and securities holdings. A supervisor-of-sorts created by Benedict in 2010, the Financial Information Authority (FIA), lacks the legal powers and independence necessary to monitor and sanction these financial institutions, according to Moneyval. The FIA has no clear right to demand access to books for accounts or other information, for instance. Overall, the Vatican was compliant or largely compliant with only nine of Moneyval’s 16 core standards, proving deficient in areas such as customer due diligence and the reporting of suspicious transactions. Mr Brülhart has the right pedigree to help. During his time transforming Liechtenstein’s bad-boy image, he was involved in the return of assets owned by the regime of Saddam Hussein to the new Iraqi government, as well as in uncovering the Siemens bribery scandal. His efforts were recognised by his peers in 2010, when he was appointed deputy head of the Egmont Group, a network of national financial-intelligence agencies. His strong Catholic credentials should also help. He even studied canon law as a student in Fribourg. He is said to have the strong backing of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s powerful secretary of state, who hired him. But he faces unique challenges. The Holy See’s financial institutions are not straightforward commercial organisations, but “canonically recognised” public entities created to serve the church. It is hard to introduce the sort of rules that brought Liechtenstein’s banks to heel. And though he may have the support of the pope’s right-hand man, he is still an outsider trying to shake up the financial affairs of an ecclesiastical city-state that is notoriously resistant to change and external interference. He will need Bond-like cunning to complete his mission.
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