UNITED STATES
Esquire
BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
Ross Cardinal Douthat, primate of the Archdiocese of Dorkylvania, may still be creased because Papa Francesco is determined not to give him the authoritarian church of his dreams, but allowing divorced Catholics to return to the sacraments is small beer compared to what the pope has been doing about the Vatican’s chronically corrupt—and bizarrely non-doctrinal—banking practices. There’s an explosion coming very soon.
While most of the media focus of the Vatican’s murky finances has for decades centred on its official bank, the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), a department called the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA), acted as its own financial powerhouse. APSA, a sort of general accounting office, manages the Vatican’s real estate holdings in Rome and elsewhere in Italy, pays salaries of Vatican employees, and acts as a purchasing office and human resources department. One of its two divisions also manages the Vatican’s financial and stock portfolio.
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