UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Gerald Posner
September 18

Gerald Posner’s book “God’s Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican” was published in February.

Pope Francis begins his much-anticipated visit to the United States this week with popularity ratings that are the envy of every U.S. politician. He also arrives with a well-deserved reputation as a reformer. During his more than two years as pope, he has supercharged a wide-ranging overhaul of the scandal-plagued Institute for the Works of Religion, or the Vatican Bank. Since its World War II creation, the bank had often served as an offshore haven for tax evaders and money launderers and frustrated six of Francis’s predecessors. Little wonder that public figures of all faiths are clamoring to share the spotlight with this pope. From a meeting with the president to an unprecedented address to a joint session of Congress, plenty…