ROME
Telegraph (UK)
By Nick Squires, Rome
19 Dec 2014
It was founded 800 years ago by St Francis of Assisi, whose name was taken by the current Pope, but the Franciscan order of friars has found itself mired in a financial scandal allegedly involving fraud and embezzlement of tens of millions of euros.
A branch of the Roman Catholic order had invested some of its money in offshore shell companies based in Switzerland, which had in turn been involved in arms and drugs trafficking, Italian media reported.
A three-month-long internal investigation has found extensive financial irregularities at the heart of the Rome-based order, which has around 14,000 members worldwide and owns churches and convents in more than 100 countries.
Michael Perry, the American head of the Order of Friars Minor, took the unusual step of writing an open letter to friars and monks to inform them that the historic order now finds itself in a “grave situation”, with millions of euros believed to be missing from its accounts.
He said the General Curia, the governing body of the order, “finds itself in grave, and I underscore ‘grave’, financial difficulty, with a significant burden of debt.”
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