UNITED STATES
Fort Madison Daily Democrat
Posted: Monday, September 21, 2015
These days, no shortage of Americans want Uncle Sam to play a larger role in regulating financial institutions. Some folks would even like to see the nationalization of large banks.
In another corner, more than a few people like the idea of church and state no longer being quite so separate as the Constitution demands. Needless to mention, most of said people want some variant of Christianity to be the state religion.
No doubt that some especially — shall we say — ‘interesting’ characters yearn for a combination of the two.
While many a sage political scientist, economist, or philosopher can provide cautionary tale after cautionary tale as to why these are bad ideas, nothing explains like firsthand experience.
Enter the story of Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, former chairman of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IWR), more well known as the ‘Vatican Bank’.
In March of 2012, our State Department placed the Vatican on an official list of countries where money laundering is a dire concern. Not long after, as — among U.S. news agencies — it seems only Reuters covered in detail, Tedeschi was unanimously ousted by the IWR’s board of directors. One should note that in 2010, the IWR had roughly $33 million of its assets frozen by Italian authorities due to suspected criminality.
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