VATICAN CITY
Los Angeles Times
Tom Kington
Financial skulduggery, avaricious priests and suspected corruption at the Vatican are detailed in two books out this week, suggesting that Pope Francis faces an uphill struggle as he weeds out sleaze at the Holy See.
The books, both published by Italian journalists, are based on leaks from the Vatican and follow the arrests over the weekend of a Spanish priest and an Italian public relations consultant suspected of supplying the authors with stolen documents.
Father Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, 54, remains in jail at the Vatican, while consultant Francesca Chaouqui, 33, was released after her arrest by Vatican police.
On Tuesday, she blamed Vallejo Balda for the leaks, telling the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera: “He did everything; I tried to stop him.”
Both were appointed by Pope Francis in 2013 to a committee set up to ferret out financial waste and wrongdoing at the Vatican. One of the books, “Merchants in the Temple” by Gianluigi Nuzzi, reveals how Francis cajoled cardinals to clean up. …
In “Merchants in the Temple,” Nuzzi reveals how the finance committee found $1.75 million worth of stock listed in the inventories of Vatican shops that did not exist, suggesting it had been purloined or invented.
He claims that only 20% of Peter’s Pence — the charitable contributions made to the church by Catholics around the world — are used to help the poor, with much of the remainder paying costs at the Holy See.
The book claims that the Vatican’s real estate holdings are valued at about $3 billion, seven times the value they are given in the Vatican’s accounts. Some 5,000 properties that are rented out, mostly in Rome, yield miniscule rents and sometimes are rented for free, prompting suggestions they are given as favors to friends.
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