A fuller picture of the financial scandal rocking the Vatican and making headlines around the world began to emerge at the end of last week and through the weekend, with a major exposé in the October 20 edition of La Repubblica’s weekly news magazine, L’Espresso.
The scandal involves monies from the Peter’s Pence collection for the Pope’s charitable initiatives around the world. Now, there’s nothing wrong with investing some of that money – in fact, it’s good policy to have nest eggs, rainy day funds, etc – rather than to keep it in a bank account. L’Espresso’s report, however, claims that nearly 80 per cent of the Peter’s Pence collection goes into investment funds chiefly managed by Credit Suisse, and quotes the Vatican’s own auditor general as saying operations connected with those investments are characterised by “gross irregularity”.
