ROME
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By FRANCES D’EMILIO Associated Press
ROME • An Italian cardinal whose penthouse apartment was reportedly renovated using funds from a Vatican-owned children’s hospital is making a large donation for medical research in a bid to make amends, the hospital’s president said Saturday.
Bambino Gesu Hospital President Mariella Enoc told reporters that Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone is donating 150,000 euros ($165, 000) for research on orphan diseases.
Bertone has insisted that he paid for the renovations himself. The scandal put him on the defensive, since lavish lifestyles clash with Pope Francis’ insistence that prelates live modestly.
Bertone was formerly the secretary of state, the Vatican’s No. 2 official, under Pope Benedict XVI and for the first months of Francis’ papacy. Now 81, he no longer holds any top Vatican post.
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