VATICAN CITY
The Fiscal Times
By DAVID FRANCIS, The Fiscal Times
February 11, 2013
Pope Benedict XVI, leader of the globe’s 1.2 billion Catholics, shocked the world this morning when he announced he is resigning.
The resignation of a pope is an extremely rare thing: a sitting pope hasn’t abdicated for 598 years. Benedict, who recently joined Twitter in an effort to connect with youth, said he was resigning due to poor health and old age. But this pope has also been hounded by scandals since he ascended to the papacy in 2005.
The scandals that rightly receive the most attention involve the cover-up of sexual abuses by priests around the globe, including in Benedict’s native Germany. But financial scandals have also plagued Benedict’s short time as the Holy See.
The Vatican, an independent country, has its own bank known as the Institute for Work on Religion. Little is known about the bank – like the rest of the Vatican’s inner workings, the bank is hidden under a cloak of secrecy – but it’s suspected to have $4 billion in assets.
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