A story you will not read in my local Catholic “vanity press” newspaper called the Beacon.
Over the last couple of years there have been many raids across the globe on the Catholic Church’s internal records, be they local dioceses or larger financial holdings of the church, records relating to sexual scandals and financial scandals and abuses have been seized by legal authorities.
A top Vatican administrator is denying the Holy See risks default over its structural deficit, saying claims in a new book about possible financial ruin are overblown.
Archbishop Nunzio Galantino, president of the office that manages the Vatican's real estate and other assets, told the Avvenire newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference Tuesday (Oct 22) that all that is needed is a "spending review" to bring down costs.
Galantino was responding to claims in a new book published Monday, "Universal Judgment" by Italian author Gianluigi Nuzzi, which has added to speculation about the Vatican's finances and the state of Pope Francis' promised reforms. (I note here Pope Frances did not start this problem of financial and sexual abuses within the church, they existed long before his papacy. So to make him the scapegoat is most unfair) … my opinion nothing can save the church as it is … it will go down as it should, it is corrupt from its core…but I note the “real church is not the Vatican or the hierarchy, but the people” . And the people should let this corrupt corporation labeled “the Church” die and claim the truth that they are the church and just move on…
The Vatican hasn't published a budget since 2015 and has been without an in-house auditor or economy minister for more than two years, fueling stories about its financial health.
These stories have only grown following a new financial scandal that erupted this month, after Vatican police raided the secretariat of state and the financial intelligence unit in search of documentation about a problematic 150 million-euro London real estate investment.
The search warrant, excerpts of which were published this weekend by L'Espresso magazine, alleges fraud, money laundering and abuse of office connected to the London venture and efforts by the Vatican to renegotiate the terms and identify money managers who were fleecing the Holy See in the deal.
The scandal has laid bare both the vast amount of money the Holy See has at its disposal for investment — including donations from the faithful for charity — and the seeming incompetence of the Vatican monsignors responsible for managing it.
Citing the warrant, L'Espresso reported the secretariat of state was managing off-balance sheet assets of some 650 million euros "derived mostly from donations received by the Holy Father for works of charity and supporting the Roman Curia," or the Vatican bureaucracy.
L'Espresso said the Vatican in 2012 considered investing some $200 million of that money in an Angolan offshore oil rig, based on a proposal by Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the Vatican's then-chief of staff and onetime ambassador to Angola. (yeah take money from the laity saying it is to help the poor and then use all that money to invest in other things … when the hell is the laity going to wake up and stop giving this sleazy corporation (the corporation of the church money).… so sad … go to Jesus Christ he is the one that will save you… not your weekly check in a collection basket or to a check to a capital campaign fund, by your Bishop …
The Vatican proposal was ultimately rejected as unsafe. Instead, the money was invested in converting a onetime Harrod's warehouse in Chelsea into luxury apartments. But even that deal went sour, after Becciu's replacement in 2018 realized the Vatican was being fleeced by the Italian financiers it had trusted, and sought to buy them out. Now this makes the Vatican sound like a "victim" really??? what are the Cardinals / priests doing taking the laity's money and investing it ??? what is their job anyhow ... to Shepherd people or make money for themselves and the Vatican (clearly in their minds it is to make money and live a high life style)
The scandal is the latest to draw attention to the opaque finances of the central government of the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church, which is funded not by taxes but from donations and revenues from the Vatican Museums, real estate and other money-making ventures in the city state.
Good gravy the Vatican is so much worse than the Temple was during the time of Jesus and I suppose one day it will be destroyed as the Temple was ...
