Scottish Catholic Observer

The Vatican state has agreed to adhere to the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (New York, 1999), the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime (Palermo, 2000) and the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Vienna, 1988).

Archbishop Dominique Mamberti (above), secretary for Relations with States, said that ‘this step represents a further recognition by the Holy See of the efforts of the community of States to prevent and combat the most serious forms of transnational criminal activity, of dramatic actuality, through appropriate instruments of international cooperation.’

The adoption of the three conventions further refines the legal structure of Vatican City State, which had already developed in this direction through the adoption of various laws concerning the prevention and combating of the laundering of money derived from criminal activity and the financing of terrorism.

The Vatican has rewritten its 2010 anti money-laundering law after European inspectors found it did not fully meet their tough standards to combat the financing of terrorism.

The new law requires the Vatican to create a list of terror organisations based on those issued by the United Nations and obliges the Holy See to enter into agreements with other countries to share financial information.

The Holy See has been working for years to comply with European norms on money-laundering and terror financing in a bid to shed its image as a secrecy-obsessed tax haven and join the so-called ‘white list’ of countries that crack down on tax fraud.

The action was prompted by Rome prosecutors seizing €23 million in September 2010 and being placed the Holy See’s top two bankers under investigation in an alleged money-laundering scheme.

Archbishop Mamberti added that the new steps ‘facilitate further the coming together of justice and peace,’ and confirm the truth of the Holy See’s ‘commitment to the respect of human dignity and concord between persons and peoples.’