ROME - THE Catholic Church is not a profit-making machine, Pope Benedict XVI said in extracts to be published on Friday of an upcoming book, as a money-laundering probe targeting the Vatican continues.
'We are not a centre of production, we are not an enterprise built for profit, we are a church,' the pope said in remarks extracted from a book of interviews and published in Italian news weekly Panorama.
'We are a community of people who live in the faith. The goal is not to create a product or to have success in sales,' the pontiff said.
Italy's financial police in September seized 23 million euros (S$41 million) from the Vatican bank and is investigating a violation of money-laundering rules, with the Vatican strongly denying any wrongdoing.
The pope's comments were a tiny portion of 20 hours of interviews conducted by German journalist Peter Seewald.
The interviews will be published in a book entitled Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times, set for release Nov 23. -- AFP
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