This is the story of two Vatican bank employees who have appealed their dismissal. The Vatican ‘union’ is ready to “take concrete measures of protest”.

Vatican Bank. Photo: IOR

Newsroom (05/10/2024 15:40, Gaudium Press) In Italy, a case involving two dismissed employees of the Vatican Bank has generated significant repercussions in the media, as Franca Giansoldati points out in Il Messaggero, referring to the episode as an “earthquake beyond the Tiber”.

The protagonists of this episode are two employees of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), commonly referred to as the Vatican Bank, who got married at the end of August and therefore received the following notification: “The Institute for the Works of Religion informs you that it has taken the difficult decision to terminate the employment relationship with both of you, due to the loss of contractual requirements.”
What requirements are they referring to?

According to an internal regulation that came into force in May, marriage between its employees is forbidden and, if they decide to do so, one of the spouses must resign within thirty days, otherwise both will be fired, as happened here.

This regulation – which triggered this “earthquake” – is already being called the anti-Christian family, because it brings the paradox that if this dismissed couple had not married, but lived in a free union, they would not be subject to the penalties they suffer today.

Before their expulsion from the IOR was made official, the dismissed spouses wrote to the Pope asking for his intercession, which has yet to be answered. They also claim that in February, before the regulations came into force, they had already started and made considerable progress in their wedding preparations and this was communicated to the institution.

The IOR, for its part, defends itself, stating that the regulation is inspired by principles “that regulate the activity of financial institutions around the world” and that it seeks primarily “to avoid the reputational risk of accusations of ‘familism’ and, consequently, to guarantee impartial treatment among employees”.
In the meantime, the dismissed couple have already hired the services of a well-known lawyer in the Curia, Laura Sgrò, and have started a “nullity” and “illegitimacy” process, which will have to be analyzed by the Vatican Court. They maintain that this expulsion is “harmful to fundamental rights”.

The lawyer explained that the IOR urged them to “immediately return their access cards to the Vatican City State and their relatives if any, as well as their credit and debit cards linked to their respective current accounts”.

Laura Sgrò stressed that the bank’s notice of dismissal was “null and void, illegitimate and seriously damaging to the fundamental rights of individuals and employees, and therefore devoid of any effect”. She clarified that her defendants “are not employees, but mere workers without any prominent or decision-making role”, that “none of them have access to confidential customer information” and that “they are located in separate areas and have no interaction with each other in the work environment”.
“None of them received proposals from the IOR to change sector (which they would have gladly accepted), nor were they offered a transfer to another Vatican institution. In any case, both solutions would have been prohibited by the new IOR Regulations,” Laura added.

After failed attempts to find a solution, the new spouses asked the Pope for help last August. They asked the pontiff for “an exemption from the rules dictated by the new Regulation, which came into force when the preparations for the wedding had been completed and the publications had already taken place”, but “received no response”, added the lawyer.

The issue has already attracted the attention of the Association of Lay Vatican Employees (AFLV), a trade union for Holy See workers. On its website, the organization commented on the dismissal as follows:
“What matters most, and what hurts the Church and all of us Catholics who serve her with our daily work, is the bitter realization that the Sacrament of Marriage, now depreciated in all parts of the world, instead of being defended and supported, has become a cause for dismissal. This is like a seriously illicit act such as theft or revealing trade secrets. We are ready to take concrete protest initiatives supporting our two colleagues.”

Compiled by Dominic Joseph