God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican
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45 Alex Jolly and Jack Lefley, “ ‘Execute the Pope’ call at Westminster Protest,” The Evening Standard, September 18, 2006, 6.
46 Malcolm Moore, “Security Around the Pope Is Stepped up; Six Churches Burned in Weekend of Protests as Muslims Condemn Pontiff’s Unflattering Reference to Mohammed,” The Daily Telegraph, September 18, 2006, 4; James Wickham, “Nun Is Shot Dead in Pope Backlash,” Daily Star (UK), September 18, 2006. See also Simon Caldwell, “24 Catholic Missionaries Killed in 2006,” Daily Mail, January 2, 2007, 19. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the Pope was trying to kick off a “chain of conspiracy to set off a crusade.” Ian Fisher and Sebnem Arsu with reporting from Istanbul, Raymond Bonner from Jakarta, Indonesia, and Mona el-Naggar from Cairo, “Pope’s Regrets over Statement Fail to Quiet a Storm of Protests,” The New York Times, September 19, 2006, 15
47 Ağca quoted in Patsy McGarry, “Man Who Tried to Kill Pope Warns Against Trip,” The Irish Times, September 21, 2006, 12.
48 Nick Pisa, “Pope in Flak Jacket Visit Plea,” The Mirror, November 27, 2006. Benedict had opposed Muslim Turkey becoming part of the European Union. After the angry response to his remarks about Islam, Benedict was anxious to make amends. So he reversed years of Vatican opposition to Turkey joining the EU and endorsed it. It was to the dismay of the U.S., which had urged him not to do so.
49 For more on the Vatican’s excuses about Benedict’s 2006 speech addressing Islam, see generally Thavis, The Vatican Diaries, 287–88.
50 Author interview with former Papal advisor/assistant, identity withheld at their request, in Rome, September 2013.
51 Benedict quoted in John Hooper, “Pope ‘Deeply Sorry’ but Muslim Protests Spread: Nun Shot Dead in Somalia; Italy on Security Alert Apology Offends Jews,” The Guardian, September 18, 2006, 1.
52 Benedict quoted in Ian Fisher, “Pope Tries to Quell Ire over Speech in Brazil,” International Herald Tribune, May 24, 2007, 3.
53 Pew Research Poll, Religion and Public Life Project, April 7, 2010, online at http://www.pewforum.org/2010/04/07/broad-criticism-of-pope-benedicts-handling-of-sex-abuse-scandal/.
54 Berry, Render Unto Rome, 186. See also Berry, “The Shame of John Paul II.”
55 Laurie Goodstein, “384 Priests Defrocked over Abuse in 2 Years,” The New York Times, January 18, 2014, A8.
56 Author interview with former Papal advisor/assistant, identity withheld at their request, in Rome, September 2013.
57 Thomas P. Doyle and Stephen C. Rubino, “Catholic Clergy Sexual Abuse Meets the Civil Law,” Fordham Urban Law Journal, Volume 31, Issue 2, Article 6, 2003; see also Thavis, The Vatican Diaries, 296.
58 Ibid. Thavis, 299.
59 Ibid., 299–300.
60 Ryan Lucas, “New Warsaw Archbishop Quits in Wake of Disclosures,” The Washington Post, January 8, 2007, A11.
61 Oliver Balch, “British bishop who denied scale of Holocaust loses job,” The Guardian, February 9, 2009. Bishop Richard Williamson was one of four bishops who adhered to the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX). SSPX had been founded to oppose the reforms of Vatican II. The four had been excommunicated in 1988.
62 A month after the uproar, Williamson was removed from his position as the chief prelate in his Argentine seminary. Three years later his traditionalist order, SSPX, expelled him. Oliver Balch, John Hooper, and Riazat Butt, “Vatican Crisis over Bishop Who Denies the Holocaust,” The Guardian, February 6, 2009; see also Nick Squires, “Holocaust Denying British Bishop Expelled From Religious Order,” The Telegraph (United Kingdom), October 24, 2012.
63 02-20-09 WikiLeaks The Holy See: A Failure to Communicate Cable, 09VATICAN28_a; https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09VATICAN28_a.html.
64 Thavis, The Vatican Diaries, 292.
65 Author interview with former Papal advisor/assistant, identity withheld at their request, in Rome, September 2013. Stampa was “one of the Pope’s few trusted confidants” according to author Gianluigi Nuzzi. Nuzzi, Ratzinger Was Afraid, 23.
66 Nuzzi, ibid.
Chapter 35: Chasing the White List
1 Wang Yunjia, “Old Obstacles, New Crisis Hits Italy’s Lagging eEconomy,” Xinhua, March 11, 2009.
2 Diego Coletto, “Effects of Economic Crisis on Italian Economy,” European Industrial Relations Observatory, University of Milan, January 6, 2010; see also Roberto Di Quirico, “Italy and the Global Economic Crisis,” Bulletin of Italian Politics 2, no. 2 (2010): 3–19.
3 “Vatican Runs Deficit Amid Global Economic Crisis,” Business, Huffington Post, July 4, 2009; Kevin Roose, “The Vatican’s Financial Empire, in Charts,” News & Politics, New York, March 12, 2013. The money raised through Peter’s Pence dropped every year through 2010. See Nuzzi, Ratzinger Was Afraid, 81.
4 Ibid.
5 Benedict quoted in Lorenzo Totaro, “Vatican Says Islamic Finance May Help Western Banks in Crisis,” Bloomberg, March 4, 2009.
6 Ibid.
7 “Vatican Bank Safe from Crisis, Bank President Says,” EWTN Global Catholic Network, October 15, 2008. Caloia told author Giancarlo Galli that the Holy See maintained gold bullion in Basel, Switzerland, and the United States, the latter in conjunction with the Federal Reserve. The Basel gold was accumulated by Nogara, and according to Caloia had “never been touched.” See Galli, Finanza bianca, 149. See also Victor L. Simpson, “Official Says Deposits in Vatican Bank Are Safe,” Associated Press, Business News, Rome, October 13, 2008.
8 Caloia interview in Galli, Finanza Bianca, 168.
9 Caloia quoted in John Thavis, “Vatican Bank Official Says Assets Not Threatened by Global Crisis,” Catholic News Service, October 14, 2008; see also Rocco Palmo, “God’s Bankers: Not Afraid,” Whispers in the Loggia, October 14, 2008, online at http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2008/10/gods-bankers-not-afraid.html; see also Simpson, “Official Says Deposits in Vatican Bank Are Safe.”
A comprehensive synopsis of the IOR’s strength during the economic crisis, as well as that of other financial departments such as APSA and the Governorate, is by Sandro Magister, “For Peter’s Cash, a Calm Amid the Storm,” L’Espresso, January 30, 2009, including five years of balance sheets for APSA, the Governorate, Peter’s Pence, as well as the published consolidated financial statements of the Holy See. See online at http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1337147?eng=y.
10 Galli, Finanza bianca, 172.
11 Nick Mathiason, “Pope Attacks Tax Havens for Robbing Poor: Vatican Condemns Roots of Credit Crunch, but Critics Say Its Own Bank Hoards Gold, Art and Cash,” The Observer, December 7, 2008, 7.
12 Benedict quoted in Ibid.
13 Nicole Winfield, “Pope Proposes New Financial Order Guided by Ethics,” Associated Press Online, Business News, Vatican City, July 7, 2009; see Caritas in Veritate online at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html.
14 Adding to Dardozzi’s unhappiness at the IOR, he was convinced the bank had cheated him out of a large commission he was due for arranging the sale of a prime Florentine church property. He wanted that money to ensure that a handicapped daughter he had adopted before he became a priest had enough money to care for herself after his death. When he made no headway in convincing anyone that he had been shortchanged, it only added to his general dissatisfaction.
15 Nuzzi, Vatican SpA, 5–7.
16 Gianluigi Nuzzi, “IOR parallelo. Conti segreti in Vaticano,” Panorama, May 17, 2005.
17 Philip Willan, “How the Vatican Sold,” The Guardian, June 15, 2009; see also Nuzzi, “IOR parallelo. Conti segreti in Vaticano.”
18 Nuzzi quoted in Willan, “The Vatican’s Dirty Secrets: Bribery, Money Laundering and Mafia Connections,” June 4, 2009.
19 Author interview with former Papal advisor/assistant, identity withheld at their request, in Rome, September 2013.
20 Andreotti quoted in Nuzzi, “IOR parallelo. Conti segreti in Vaticano.” Galeazzi, “Karol Wojtyla and the Se
crets of Vatican Finances,” “Vatican Insider.”
21 Ibid.
22 Author interview with former Papal advisor/assistant, identity withheld at their request, in Rome, September 2013.
23 Ibid.
24 Lai, Finanze vaticane, 97.
25 Caloia statement as part of a submission of a 2008 financial report to the Secretariat of State; see Magister, “All the Denarii of Peter. Vices and Virtues of the Vatican Bank.”
26 Guy Dinmore, “Upheaval Lifts Vatican Bank’s Veil of Secrecy,” Financial Times, October 16, 2009.
27 Ibid. See also an extensive interview with Gotti Tedeschi by Angela Ambrogetti, “Economics from a Catholic Perspective,” Inside the Vatican, March 7, 2012. See also Stacy Meichtry, “Vatican Revamps Its Bank’s Ranks,” The Wall Street Journal, September 25, 2001, 1.
28 Meichtry, Ibid.
29 John L. Allen Jr., “New Vatican Bank Scandal Threatens to Erupt,” National Catholic Reporter, September 21, 2010; John Thavis, “Vatican Bank Head Named in Money-Laundering Probe,” Catholic News Service, September 21, 2010.
30 “Renewal of the Board of Superintendence of the IOR,” Vatican City, Vatican Information Service, September 23, 2009; see also “Supreme Knight Appointed to Board of Vatican Bank,” Catholic News Agency, September 23, 2009; Stacy Meichtry, “Vatican Revamps Its Bank’s Ranks,” The Wall Street Journal, September 25, 2001, 1. Anderson carried particular influence at the Vatican because the Knights of Columbus that he ran counted 1.8 million members. That made it the world’s largest Catholic service organization.
31 Andreas Wassermann and Peter Wensierski, “Transparency vs. Money Laundering: Catholic Church Fears Growing Vatican Bank Scandal,” Der Spiegel, July 2, 2012; Jonathan Manthorpe, “Pope Benedict Tries to Purify Scandal-ridden Vatican Bank,” The Vancouver Sun, July 3, 2012.
32 The best synopsis of Gotti Tedeschi’s background is by Sandro Magister, “The Vatican Bank Has a New Laissez-Faire President: Ettore Gotti Tedeschi,” L’Espresso, October 1, 2009.
33 Gotti Tedeschi interviewed in Ambrogetti, “Economics from a Catholic Perspective.” He emphasized his practical business experience. “Don’t forget that for twenty years I’ve been the president of the Italian unit of one of the largest banks in the world. For ten years I have been an independent board member of the Italian government’s bank, the Deposits and Loans Fund. I am chairman of the Infrastructure Fund.”
34 Magister, “The Vatican Bank Has a New Laissez-Faire President.”
35 Rino Cammilleri and Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, Denaro e Paradiso. L’economia globale e il mondo cattolico (Money and Paradise: The Global Economy and the Catholic World) (Milan: Piemme, Casale Monferrato, 2004); Gotti Tedeschi’s solid connections to the Vatican were evident in the publication of that book: the preface was written by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops. See Sandro Magister, “A Catholic Banker Tells How to Produce Wealth for the Kingdom of God,” L’Espresso, October 11, 2004.
36 Sandro Magister, “Financial Crisis. The Good News Is Coming from the Vatican,” L’Espresso, February 27, 2009.
37 His morality was intertwined with his economic theories. For instance, in an October 24 note to Benedict’s private secretary, Monsignor Gänswein, Gotti Tedeschi commented on a credit crunch facing European and American banks: “The excessive lending from banks is an effect, not a cause. The cause is declining birth rates in the Western world, with repercussions on economic growth and increased costs due to an aging population.” Letter from Gotti Tedeschi to Gänswein reproduced in Nuzzi, Ratzinger Was Afraid, 194, 205.
38 Gotti Tedeschi quoted in David Gibson, “Vatican Bank Probe Threatens New Scandal for Beleaguered Pope,” Politics Daily/Huffington Post, 2011.
39 Only church historians and coin collectors knew that in a 1930 charter that Pius XI had established the gold lira as the city-state’s official currency. But those coins were issued only for commemorative purposes. See Philip W. Willan, “Vatican to Adopt the Euro,” The Guardian, December 22, 1998.
40 “Vatican, EU Update Financial Accord,” Zenit, December 18, 2009.
41 Guy Dinmore, “The Vatican: A Murky See,” Financial Times, September 24, 2010.
42 Unnamed “Vatican representative” quoted in Rachel Donadio and Andrew Higgins, “Power Struggle on Reforming Vatican Banks,” The New York Times, March 10, 2013, 1.
43 Andrea Tornielli, “The Vatican’s Temptation to Exit the Euro,” “Vatican Insider,” La Stampa, July 24, 2012; Lai, Finanze vaticane, 99.
44 The language in the agreement said in part: “The Vatican City State shall undertake to adopt all appropriate measures, through direct transpositions or possibly equivalent actions, for the application of all relevant Community legislation on the prevention of money laundering, on the prevention of fraud and counterfeiting of cash and non-cash means of payment.” See online at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52009PC0570:EN:NOT. “EU and Vatican Sign a New Monetary Accord,” Vatican City, ANSAmed—English, December 17, 2009; “Vatican, EU Update Financial Accord,” Zenit, December 18, 2009.
45 “And only in recent months has the Holy See decided to prosecute money laundering: until April 2010, it did not even consider it a crime.” Nuzzi, Ratzinger Was Afraid, 28.
46 Dinmore, “The Vatican: A Murky See:” That following January ASPA chief, Cardinal Attilio Nicora, was selected as the chief of a new IOR section whose goal was to facilitate the bank’s progress for eventually qualifying for the white list.
47 Nicole Winfield, “US Appeals Court Nixes Vatican Bank Holocaust Suit,” Associated Press, International News, Vatican City, December 30, 2009.
Chapter 36: The World Has Changed
1 Jeffrey Owens quoted in Nicole Winfield, “Prosecutors Doubt Vatican Money-Laundering Pledges,” Bloomberg BusinessWeek, October 30, 2010.
2 Andrea Gagliarducci, “Vatican Finance Group Signs Agreement with German Counterpart,” Catholic News Agency, December 4, 2013.
3 Gagliarducci, “Vatican Finance Group Signs Agreement with German Counterpart.”
4 Nuzzi, Ratzinger Was Afraid, 89.
5 John Thavis, “Vatican Bank Head Named in Money-Laundering Probe,” Catholic News Service, September 21, 2010; see also “Vatican Bank Board Fires President, Citing Neglect of Duties,” The Catholic Register, May 28, 2012; Stacy Meichtry and Margherita Stancati, “Vatican Bank’s Officials Probed: Italian Prosecutors Look at Allegations Identities of Clients Weren’t Disclosed,” The Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2010.
6 “Vatican Bank ‘Investigated over Money-Laundering,’ ” BBC, News Europe; “Vatican ‘Perplexed’ by Vatican Bank Probe,” The Catholic Universe.
7 Giovanni De Censi, the director of Credito Artigiano’s parent company, Credito Valtellinese, was a member of the IOR’s board of advisors. Meichtry and Stancati, “Vatican Bank’s Officials Probed: Italian Prosecutors Look at Allegations Identities of Clients Weren’t Disclosed”; Dinmore, “The Vatican: A Murky See.”
8 Unnamed Bank of Italy official interviewed in Guy Dinmore, “The Vatican: A Murky See,” Financial Times, September 24, 2010.
9 The entire statement: “The clear desire for full transparency regarding the financial operations of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), demonstrated many times by the authorities of the Holy See, is well known. That requires that procedures designed to prevent terrorism and money-laundering be put into effect. For this reason, the authorities of IOR for some time have been pursuing the necessary contacts and meetings, both with the Bank of Italy and the relevant international bodies—the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Financial Action Task Force—in order to insert the Holy See into the so-called “White List.”
“The Holy See, therefore, is perplexed and astonished by the initiative of the Prosecutor of Rome, especially since the information necessary is already available from the relevant offices of the Bank of Italy, and analogou
s operations are going on concurrently with other Italian institutions of credit.
“Regarding the cited transactions, it should be noted that these are operations of a transfer of credit for non-Italian institutions, the consignee of which is the IOR.
“The Holy See expresses its maximum confidence in the president and director general of the IOR.”
As translated in John L. Allen Jr., “New Vatican Bank Scandal Threatens to Erupt,” National Catholic Reporter, September 21, 2010.
10 Lombardi quoted in John Thavis, “Vatican Bank Head Named in Money-Laundering Probe,” Catholic News Service, September 21, 2010. Lombardi letter quoted in Speciale, “Unmasking the Vatican’s Bank”; see also “Vatican Finances Aboveboard, Affirms Aide,” Zenit, September 23, 2010.
11 Dinmore, “The Vatican: A Murky See.”
12 Guy Dinmore, “Sicily Probe Adds to Vatican Bank Pressure,” Financial Times, November 3, 2010.
13 Ibid.
14 Unnamed Italian official quoted in ibid.
15 Jeffrey Donovan and Lorenzo Totaro, “Nazi Victims Ask EU to Probe Vatican on Looted Assets,” Bloomberg, October 26, 2010; author interview with Jonathan Levy, February 21, 2012.
16 Guy Dinmore, “Vatican Bank Goes to Court over Frozen Funds,” Financial Times, October 7, 2010; “Italian Judge Upholds Seizure of Vatican Assets,” Associated Press, Rome, December 20, 2010.
17 Victor Simpson and Nicole Winfield, “Vatican Bank Hit by Financial Scandal . . . Again,” The Independent (UK), December 19, 2010.
18 Barbie Latza Nadeau, “Vatican Banker Running Scared: Gotti Tedeschi Could Turn Whistle-Blower,” The Daily Beast, June 10, 2102.
19 According to “a senior FATF official familiar with the negotiations [with the Vatican}” quoted in Winfield, “Prosecutors Doubt Vatican Money-Laundering Pledges.”