The newest Vatican financial revelation brings about one very important
point: no one knows just how much the Vatican is worth except the pontiff
himself and some very close-lipped minions.
The
Guardian, London:
"Behind a disguised offshore
company structure, the church's international portfolio has been built up over
the years, using cash originally handed over by Mussolini in return for papal
recognition of the Italian fascist regime in 1929.
Since then the international value of Mussolini's nest-egg has
mounted until it now exceeds 500m pounds. In 2006, at the height of the recent property
bubble, the Vatican spent 15m of those funds to buy 30 St James's Square.
Other UK properties are at 168 New Bond Street and in the city of Coventry. It
also owns blocks of flats in Paris and Switzerland."
A widely-read OpEdNews article (The
Vatican's Fake Occupy Implodes: Documents Evoke A History Of Money Laundering,
Sexual Terrorism, And Even ... Murder) focused on the financial
wrong-doings of the papacy, but only featured the Banco Ambrosiano scandal and
its history in relation to John Paul I and his untimely death. This latest
revelation, however, demonstrates the extent of holdings of the Vatican: secret
holdings which may only be the tip of the iceberg. Holdings which maintain an
extravagant lifestyle that John Paul discovered to his horror.
Pope
John Paul I:
". . . this morning, I flushed my toilet with
a solid gold lever edged with diamonds and at this very moment, bishops and
cardinals are using a bathroom on the second floor of the papal palace which
trappings, I am told, would draw more than fifty million dollars at auction . .
. Believe me, one day, we who live in opulence, while so many are dying because
they have nothing, will have to answer to Jesus as to why we have not carried
out His instruction, "Love thy neighbor as thyself.' We, the clergy of the
Church together with our congregations, who substitute gold and pomp and
ceremony in place of Christ's instruction, who judge our masquerade of singing
His praises to be more precious than human life, will have the most to
explain."
Bernadino Nogara - The Man Behind The Vatican Empire
To understand the complex
and secretive roots of the Vatican's financial empire, it's necessary to look
back to 1929, when the papacy's finances were less than stellar. Financial
advisor Bernadino Nogara had been a good friend of several papacies (of his
many siblings, two were archbishops, another was superintendent of the Vatican
Museums, and his sister the mother superior of a nunnery), it was he who, as
Director of the Special Administration of the Holy See, engineered the vast
financial settlement of the Lateran Treaties with Mussolini.
Astronomical
$92 million may not seem to be a significant amount of money, but in the
context of Depression Era Italy, the sum is staggering and could have accounted
for a huge chunk out of Italy's impoverished economy. Seeding the Vatican's
finances with that amount (almost half of it in cash, the remainder in
government bonds) was akin to bankrolling a small country. Indeed, that was the
purpose: the Vatican acquired a measure of independence with its recognition of
Fascism.
And Nogara made the most of the Mussolini millions in his 35-year tenure as
chief financier:
"Under Pius XI, Nogara made large
investments in firms contrary to Catholic social teaching and made direct loans to Mussolini's
government prior to Mussolini's
1935 invasion of Ethiopia. [6][7] Under Pius XII, Nogara routinely
invested in firms that profited from and enabled the war effort of the Axis powers during World War II. Though these
investments were hidden from the Allies (with whom Nogara also transacted),
through the use of holding companies and offshore banking centers,
under Nogara "like water finding a downhill path, Vatican money found its
way to the grisly side of the Holocaust".
Nogara's
anti-Semitic dealings under Pius XII were only brought about years later: all
of his personal meetings with the Pope were in private and no notes were taken.
Secrecy reigned.
Just as it does now.
The Guardian asked the Vatican's representative in London, the papal nuncio,
archbishop Antonio Mennini, why the papacy continued with such secrecy over the
identity of its property investments in London.
"We also asked what the pope spent
the income on. True to its tradition of silence on the subject, the Roman
Catholic church's spokesman said that the nuncio had no comment."
More Money Than God
Forget the stories of the value of the Vatican's porn library. Or of its art
collection. Those are pittances: the known holdings of the Catholic Church in
the U.S. tops $500 billion. Combine it with holdings in Catholic Countries such
as Italy (now the 8th strongest economy in the world), Mexico, Brazil, and the
Filipines, companies and industrial complexes and in secret secular real
estate, the worth of the Church reaches into the trillion$. It could be argued
that the Vatican controls an economy larger than the U.S.
And what of more secret
holdings?
God only knows.
And maybe He's pissed. He may tipped off the Guardian.
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