Vatican says financial allegations must be 'interpreted with care'

By Stephanie Kirchgaessner
Guardian (UK)
November 4, 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/04/vatican-says-financial-allegations-must-be-interpreted-with-care

Among the allegations is that Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone once redirected tens of millions of euros to renovate his apartment. He said he repaid the money.

The Vatican acknowledged on Wednesday that a series of explosive allegations at the heart of two new exposés into the inner workings of Vatican finances had to be “studied and interpreted with care” but insisted that Pope Francis was already well aware of the problems.

The Holy See also confirmed it was investigating an Italian banker who may have been involved in questionable transactions involving the Vatican office that handles its vast real estate holdings.

In an effort to address looming questions about church finances, it also released a separate statement saying that a new board of directors heading a foundation connected to Bambino Gesù, a paediatric hospital in Rome, had held its first meeting on Wednesday.

The hospital was at the centre of several allegations in the two books published this week, Merchants in the Temple by Gianluigi Nuzzi and Avarice by Emiliano Fittipaldi. The Vatican said the new board was committed to transparency and had “turned a page” on its past.

The top Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi, did not deny any specific allegations made. The books included claims that the Vatican office that works on investigating candidates for sainthood had spent tens of millions of euros without any accountability or documentation, and that a cardinal used funds initially earmarked for charity to pay for the renovation of his penthouse before paying the money back.

Lombardi focused instead on the assertion that some of the claims were already old news.

“One can say that for the most part it is information already known, although often with less breadth and detail. But above all it should be noted that the published literature is mostly related to the commitment of significant collection of data and information set in motion by the Holy Father himself to carry out a study and reflection of the reform and improvement of the administrative situation of the Vatican and the Holy See,” he said.

The Holy See’s spokesman added that some of the allegations – such as questions about how more than 50% of a charity called Peter’s Pence was devoted to the church bureaucracy known as the Curia, and not the poor – could be subject to different interpretations.

“The works of charity of the pope for the poor are certainly one of the essential tasks, but that does not exclude ... that the pope himself can assess emergencies and how to respond in the light of his service for the good of the universal church,” he said.

At the same time, the Vatican confirmed that it had launched an investigation into the financial dealings of Giampietro Nattino, the chairman of a family-run private Italian bank called Banca Finnat Euroamerica.

It said the office of the promoter of justice at the court of the state had initiated an investigation into the purchase and sale of securities related to Nattino following a report by the Authority of Financial Information, which it received in February 2015.

News of the investigation was first reported by Reuters. The news agency said investigators were examining whether accounts held by the department within the Vatican that oversees real estate investments had been used by Nattino for personal trades on the Italian stock market, and whether €2m (£1.4m) wwas moved to Switzerland days before the Vatican introduced stricter rules against money laundering.

The Vatican said it had also asked Italian and Swiss prosecutors to collaborate in their investigation.

Nattino said in a statement that his work had “always been characterised by maximum transparency and correctness in respect of regulations in force” and that he “trusts that the matter can be cleared up definitively as soon as possible”.

The Vatican also announced that the new board of directors heading the foundation that supports Bambino Gesù, a hospital that is part of the national health service but is located in Vatican territory, had met for the first time, in an apparent effort to stave off questions about the foundation’s management.

The hospital was at the heart of several eyebrow-raising allegations in both books, including that a top cardinal, Tarcisio Bertone, had once redirected tens of millions of euros from the foundation torenovate his own apartment. Bertone said the funds were repaid.

Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, said the appointment of the new board meant the hospital foundation was beginning from a “completely new” basis.

The new board passed several new statutes at its first meeting, held on Wednesday morning, and Mariella Enoc, the foundation president, vowed it would be like a “house of glass”, dedicated to fundraising for hospital research and innovation.