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PDF versionRoman notebook: Yet another Vatican financial scandal
by John L Allen Jr on Feb. 08, 2012
ROME -- Yet another financial scandal threatened to engulf the Vatican today, in the form of charges that four Italian priests, none of them Vatican officials, are under investigation by Italian prosecutors on charges of money laundering related to accounts they allegedly held at the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), better known as the “Vatican Bank”.
An article outlining the charges against the four priests ran today in the left-wing Italian newspaper l’Unità, and a report focusing, among other things, on the same charges aired tonight on the widely watched Italian TV program, “The Untouchables.”
The newspaper article ran under the headline, “Money-laundering, Four Priests Investigated: The Silence of the Vatican on Controls.” The suggestion was that the Vatican has refused to cooperate with investigation of the charges.
“The Untouchables” is the same program which, in late January, revealed confidential letters from Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, today the pope’s nuncio, or ambassador, to the United States, complaining of “corruption and dishonesty” in Vatican finances.
The Vatican spokesperson, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, tonight issued a statement charging that the newspaper report about the four priests reflects “a notable lack of seriousness” on the part of the author.
Lombardi’s statement asserts that far from a policy of “silence,” in fact, “the Holy See and the authorities of the Vatican have dutifully cooperated with the prosecutors and the other Italian authorities.”
The statement asserts that beginning in 2006-07, the IOR began reviewing all its accounts for indications of suspect transactions. That was well ahead, he said, of a Dec. 2010 anti-money laundering law decreed by Pope Benedict XVI.
Lombardi insisted that the Vatican Bank “has repeatedly cooperated with the Italian authorities at every level.” In fact, he said, one of the four priests is currently under investigation precisely because he was reported to Italian investigators by the director of the IOR, an Italian layman named Paolo Cipriani.
“The Untouchables” program this evening charged that investigators in Rome have submitted formal requests for information to the Vatican which have been ignored, but Lombardi denied that as well. He said that the Vatican’s new “Financial Information Authority” has complied with all requests it has received.
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In the case of one of the priests mentioned by the newspaper report and the TV program, Lombardi said, no request for information ever arrived; another of the priests, he said, has already been found innocent by a criminal trial, a verdict upheld upon appeal.
Lombardi also objected to the use of the term “incriminated” to refer to both Cipriani and the president of the IOR, layman Ettore Gotti Tedeschi – a reference to an investigation by Italian authorities launched in 2010 related to two Vatican Bank transactions which allegedly failed to comply with European standards of transparency. While the two men have been “investigated,” Lombardi said, neither has ever been “incriminated.”
During tonight’s TV broadcast, a Roman investigator named Luca Tescaroli also said that he had submitted three formal requests for information to the Vatican related to the 1982 death of Roberto Calvi, an Italian financier dubbed “God’s Banker” because of his close Vatican ties. Tescaroli said that to date, there has been no response to those requests.
Despite that, Tescaroli also said that he regards the Dec. 2010 law decreed by Pope Benedict XVI, intended to move the Vatican in the direction of greater transparency and compliance with international anti-money laundering norms, as a “Copernican Revolution” in Vatican finances.
Disheartening . We have a
Disheartening .
We have a church where it is necessary for it's leader to issue an "anti-money laundering law". How pathetic is that?
An institute run with such knavish imbecility that if it were not the work of God it would not last a fortnight. - Hilaire Belloc
Clearly, the requests for
Clearly, the requests for information from investigators to the Vatican got lost in the mail. Or something.
Maybe they sent the letter to
Maybe they sent the letter to God and are waiting for a reply. LOL
This is beyond belief,
This is beyond belief, another scandal at the Vatican concerning money! In the USA we often hear about priest stealing from their Churches. If this was a government, it would be brought down in shame. Anyone who says that we do not need to consider changes in the Catholic Church leadership must be deaf, blind and dumb. I wonder when Jesus will get tired of all this scandal and send the Holy Spirit to awaken the laity, the body of the Church, to demand reform of the current top down governing system. The people who pay, pray, and are silent need to make some noise. God Bless the Church that Jesus Christ gave to the Apostles to develop.
Jesus threw the money
Jesus threw the money changers out of the Temple. The Vatican Bank should receive the same treatment.
The idea that alleged men of God and their minions cannot be trusted with the money that the sheeple give should be enough to dry up contributions from around the world. Pronto.
SHAME, BUT NO BLAME
SHAME, BUT NO BLAME .......... John, there is a common denominator here. The pope and the curia treat pew Catholics' continuing contributions with the same unaccountable and reckless indifference they show towards pew Catholics' clerically abused children. It is truly inscrutable why Catholics continue to accept this unacceptable behavior.
When the curia gets caught in these outrages, they religiously try to spin their way out of it until the media attention moves on--then its usually business as usual. How many financial scandals must occur at the Vatican Bank before the pope finally acts effectively? Why haven't curial heads rolled?
It's not the pope's money; it is not the curia's money. It is hard working Catholics' donations. The same Catholics who see their churches and schools being closed repeatedly due to "lack of funds".
And when someone like Archbishop Vigano tries to curtail curial corruption at the Vatican, he gets summarily sandbagged by the pope to the US, where Vigano must now help Dolan, Chaput and Lori sandbag Obama with the contrived "religious liberty/birth control" crusade to protect US bishops from "religious persecution".
Of course, by helping to defeat Obama, the hierarchy seems more intent on avoiding "secular prosecution", than "religious persecution". Obama's increasing prosecutions of child sex abuse crimes, e.g., in Kansas City, appear to have convinced the pope and bishops its time to help elect a more pliable "jailer-in-chief"
Perhaps, Vigano might at least be able to teach Dolan and Chaput how to prevent their employees from stealing a couple of million dollars from right under their noses, as was recently disclosed. We haven't heard the last on this.
It is time to make the entire hierarchy accountable to the People of God, as over 2,500 bishops advocated at Vatican II, only to be stymied for almost 50 years by the curia and their papal clients.
Sooner or later, John, you and poor Father Lombardi, are going to run out of creative ways to spin the latest curial outrage. NCR should give you an assistant in charge just of "Papal Corruption and Cover-ups".
Hey, why so hard on the poor
Hey, why so hard on the poor boy? You know, toe the party line.....or join the unemployment line. Guy's just trying to make an honest living. Oops! Did I say honest? My bad.
Is anyone really surprised
Is anyone really surprised after reading about this SCANDAL:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-26/holocaust-survivors-ask-eu-comm...
http://www.cnbc.com/id/39285602/Italian_Police_Probe_Vatican_Bank_Officials
Why continue contributing to
Why continue contributing to the corrupt vatican church? It's a mystery!
It looks like the drug
It looks like the drug dealers, sex slavery honchos, tax-evading billionaires, and corrupt politicians and ecclesiastics will have to find some other transfer agents.
Isn't Carl Anderson, former
Isn't Carl Anderson, former Republican White House wonk, later the ravager of our Knights of Columbus, turning it into another GPO PAC, now running that Vatican Bank? It figures.
Deception and corruption and con games and fooling the Faithful People of God without blinking a blue eye are his speciality, his stock in trade.
The Vatican Bank (IOR) has a
The Vatican Bank (IOR) has a long history of corruption. See David Yallop's book "In God's Name," 1984. Pope John Paul I was about to make major changes at the IOR when he unexpectedly died. No autopsy was performed to determine the cause of death.
Remember Jesus in the temple
Remember Jesus in the temple with the money lenders. How discouraging.
“a notable lack of
“a notable lack of seriousness”
Yeah! Like committing a crime.
Jesus did cast out the money
Jesus did cast out the money changers because they were perverting the truth and meaning of salvation. The Vatican welcomes them. Why? It appears The love of money is an irresistible evil.
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