ITALY
International Business Times
By Umberto Bacchi
May 28, 2015
A top Vatican official has been placed under investigation for embezzlement in relation to the purchase of an historic Italian castle in what might become the last of a series of scandal to hit the Holy See, it has been reported.
Prosecutors in Terni, central Italy, have included the name of Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia among a list of individuals suspected of having fraudulently manoeuvred the sale of the 19th-century San Girolamo castle, located on the lush Umbrian hills near the town of Narni, local press said.
The building, which houses an old Franciscan convent, was sold by the Narni City Council to a real estate company named IMI Immobiliare four years ago for about €1m (£700,000, $1.1m).
At the time, Monisgnor Paglia, currently the president of the Holy See’s council for family matters, was serving as the bishop of Terni, a diocese which includes Narni.
Prosecutors allege that the castle was sold way below its real value – which they estimate at more than €5.5m – and purchased with church money as part of a criminal conspiracy orchestrated by the archbishop, Il Corriere della Sera reported.
The director of IMI Immobiliare (the buyer) was in fact Paolo Zappelli who was also the bursar of the diocese of Terni.
Detectives claim the company completed the purchase with funds from the diocese, which was at the time facing a separate deficit crisis, and later gained it the dubious title of Europe’s second most indebted diocese.
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