VATICAN CITY
The Sun Daily
VATICAN CITY: The Vatican has opened an investigation into the financing of renovations at a luxury penthouse occupied by Italian cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the former number two in the Holy See hierarchy, officials said Thursday.
Spread across hundreds of square metres at the top of the Palazzo San Carlo and boasting a huge terrace with magnificent views over Rome, Bertone’s sumptuous retirement pad has became synonymous with the kind of clerical extravagance Pope Francis has vowed to stamp out.
Now it is set to cause further embarrassment to the famously frugal pontiff after it was confirmed that a probe has been launched into how €200,000 worth of the renovation costs came to be paid by a Foundation linked to Rome’s Bambino Gesu (Baby Jesus) children’s hospital, which is run by the Vatican.
Bertone himself is not under investigation but officials are examining the conduct of the hospital’s former chairman, Giuseppe Profiti, and its former finance chief, Massimo Spina, a Vatican spokesman said.
The probe follows revelations by investigative journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi, who is one of two reporters currently on trial in a Vatican court for obtaining classified documents which provide evidence of waste, irregularities and extravagance in the Holy See’s finances.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.