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Vatican Orders Massive Money Transfer: Signs Of Global Economic Collapse

 

KEVIN SHIPP - VATICAN CONNECTION TO THE CIA

Pope Francis’ efforts to clean up Vatican finances rewarded by the E.U.

Gerard O’Connell

November 30, 2018

Photo by Yeo Khee on Unsplash


In a decision that is seen as a recognition of the Vatican’s achievements at financial transparency under Pope Francis, the Board of the European Payments Council last week “approved the extension of the geographical scope of the Single Euro Payments Area to Vatican City State and the Holy See.”

The Vatican today announced the approval of its application to join S.E.P.A., which is a payment-integration initiative of the European Union for simplification of bank transfers in the euro currency that came into effect in 2014.

The Vatican statement explained that “S.E.P.A. harmonizes the way electronic euro payments are made across Europe. It allows European consumers, businesses and public administrations to make and receive credit transfers as well as direct debit under the same basic conditions and makes all cross-border payments in euro as easy as domestic payments.”

Participation in S.E.P.A. means that the Holy See and the Vatican City State will be able to move money using an IBAN code. This will first benefit the Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly referred to as the Vatican Bank, and the administration that manages Vatican real estate, but in due course, the Vatican’s other financial institutions will also benefit.

Ever since his election as pope on March 13, 2013, Francis has sought to reform the Roman Curia, starting with Vatican finances.

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The Vatican said “it is foreseen that as of 1 March 2019, the S.E.P.A. schemes are open to the financial institutions of the Vatican City State/Holy See, once they have joined.” On that date, the following 36 countries will form part of S.E.P.A.: the 28 European Union Member States plus Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino, the Principality of Andorra and the Vatican City State/Holy See.

“The successful application to S.E.P.A. is a very positive sign. It helps to facilitate payments and harmonizes such services. Furthermore, it demonstrates the Holy See’s efforts to enhance financial transparency,” according to René Bruelhart, a Swiss lawyer, whom Pope Francis appointed as the president of the board of directors of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority, its anti-money laundering agency. He is the first layman to hold that position.

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Mary Ann Glendon resigns from Vatican Bank oversight board

Mary Ann Glendon, who resigned from the IOR's Board of Superindentence Feb. 16, 2018.

Credit: Harvard Law Records (CC BY 2.0).



Vatican City, Feb 16, 2018 / 03:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Prominent American professor Mary Ann Glendon has resigned from the Board of Superintendence which oversees the Institute of Religious Works, the so-called Vatican Bank.

“Professor Glendon has expressed a desire to devote more time to other Catholic causes, and the IOR wishes her all of the best for the future, both personally and professionally,” the institute said Feb. 16.

The statement thanked the 79-year-old Glendon for her contributions, especially in the process of defining its legal framework.

The Massachusetts-born Glendon served as U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See under President George W. Bush from 2008-2009. She is a professor at Harvard Law School with an expertise in international human rights, comparative law, and constitutional law.

Under Pope Francis, Glendon was a member of a papal commission set up to ensure transparency at the Vatican Bank and make recommendations for its future from June 2013 to May 2014. She then served as a member of the IOR’s Board of Superintendence beginning July 9, 2014.

The Vatican’s Dirty Money Problem

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast


FISHY

A mysterious firing and a new report on the Vatican’s creative bookkeeping begs the question: Why does no one ever get in trouble for laundering money at the Holy See?



Barbie Latza Nadeau


12.12.17 1:06 PM ET


ROME—In 2015, the Council of Europe’s financial-evaluation arm Moneyval laid down the law for the Vatican Bank, telling the rather unholy financiers who had been accused of abetting money laundering for years that it isn’t enough to just smoke out suspicious account holders and freeze assets. Instead they said the Vatican Bank, formally known as the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, needed to start actually prosecuting criminal cases.

Two years later, thousands of accounts have been closed or frozen, but Moneyval still isn’t happy. According to its 209-page December 2017 progress report, the Vatican gets good marks for not funding terrorism and for flagging potential illegal behavior. But the holy bank fails once again to actually hold anyone accountable for what are clearly crimes such as “fraud, including serious tax evasion, misappropriation and corruption,” according to the report.


More curious still, a week before the highly anticipated report was released, the IOR Deputy Director Giulio Mattietti was fired with no advance warning and escorted from his office out of fear he might remove files from his desk.

Mattietti was hired in 2007 by Paolo Cipriani, the former head of the bank who resigned under pressure a few months after Pope Francis was elected in 2013, after a Vatican accountant nicknamed “Monsignor 500” for his penchant for 500-euro notes, was arrested for trying to smuggle $26 million to Switzerland. Mattietti’s removal followed the sacking of a lower-level IOR employee days earlier. The Vatican gives no official reason for either of the firings beyond “reforms,” but a source close to the bank says the bank employees who were let go may have been whistleblowers who were alerting officials outside the bank about continuing impropriety.

In fact, despite apparently precise record keeping on the part of IOR, Moneyval evaluators still found 69 actions involving 38 customers that were not in accordance with money laundering and fraud standards set forth by the Council of Europe. None of those suspect cases were prosecuted to the fullest extent under the law, and instead Moneyval investigators point to vague records that imply that the cases were closed.

“Eight money-laundering investigations have been closed formally without any charges, while six additional investigations have been concluded without an indictment for any offense and their formal closure has been requested,” the report states.

And that is a problem.

Sudden dismissal of Vatican bank no. 3 representative

The Cashless Society, the New World Order and the Vatican Bank.

From "The Stones Cry Out" file:

The Cashless Society, the New World Order and the Vatican Bank.

maneco64

Published on Jul 13, 2017


In this report I talk about how the project for a cashless society has been a long term project by the New World Order crowd and how they exploit crises that they themselves create in order to convince the public to give up their freedoms. I also cover the close relationship between the Federal Reserve and the Vatican Bank.

Vatican and Gold Price Suppression: https://youtu.be/KQuyKBt5COY
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Suspected Pedophilia of Vatican Bank head Cardinal Pell goes viral

TRUNEWS

Published on Feb 19, 2016

WWW.TRUNEWS.COM

Suspected Pedophilia of Vatican Bank head Cardinal Pell goes viral

On Friday, a song asking Cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis' head of finance, to return home to answer charges that he was complicit in a cover up of sexual abuse in Australian parishes, has gone viral on YouTube and iTunes.

The song “Come Home” was written and produced by Australian musician Tim Minchin, who has donated the proceeds to a funding campaign for the alleged victims, which has now raised enough money to fly the group to Rome to confront the cardinal. Minchin first performed the song on Tuesday, and by Thursday evening it had become the most popular song on iTunes in Australia.

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NWO: Jesuit infiltration, increased surveillance & enforcement of the mark of the beast

friendofYahushua

Published on Nov 9, 2014


FAIR USE NOTICE: This video may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes only. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

PLEASE watch this video in its entirety!

As Christians anticipate the imminent return of the Son of the Most High, Bible prophecy indicates that the world will soon go through unprecedented changes, which will take the great majority of us by surprise.

Satan, the father of lies and enemy of God, knows his time is very short as prophetic signs point to the imminent glorious return of the Son of God and Saviour of the human race, Jesus the Christ. Satan is using the Antichrist pope and the Vatican's Jesuits to infiltrate and manipulate all levels of government, institutions and churches with the purpose of ushering his sadistic new world order.

Since 9/11, the world has witnessed increased surveillance and the infringement and regression of individual rights, false flag attacks and other fear-mongering tactics to bring the false messiah who will be none other than satan in the flesh. He will masquerade himself as Christ to a deceived world, which has rejected the Christ of the Bible and His Law of love, His holy ten-commandments.

However, this false messiah will not be able to deceive the elect of the Most High as well as countless others, who will come to the knowledge of the truth, in these end times. The false messiah will change the 7th day Sabbath commandment of the Most High which points to Him as the Creator to SUNday, the venerable day of the sun, in partnership with the Antichrist pope, to bring about Sunday laws worldwide.

Sunday worship will be the enforced mark of the Vatican beast, the prophesied first beast of Revelation 13 and whore of Babylon in Revelation 17. This is what the Vatican beast has to say about its mark:

"Sunday is our MARK of our authority [...] The church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact". — Catholic Record of London, Ontario. Sept. 1, 1923.

Those who accept Sunday rather than the commanded 7th day Sabbath of God will pay a miserable price for disobeying an offended God. The seven plagues of the Most High will soon fall upon those who will take the mark of the beast (Sunday rest and worship) -- rather than observing the commandments of the Most High including the 7th day Sabbath commandment (Exodus 20:8-11) - and their fate will be an unpleasant one, as mentioned in Revelation 14:9-10.

Sunday observance cannot be found in the Bible. Christ or His apostles never ordained or commanded a change in the day of rest from the 7th day of the week to the 1st day of the week.

The Catholic church has even admitted this fact through the following statement:

"From beginning to end of Scripture, there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week [Saturday] to the first [Sunday]." Catholic Press, Sydney, Australia, August, 1900.

Soon, every man, woman and child will have to make a very important decision that will alter the fate: either embrace Christ and His commandments including the 7th day Sabbath commandment or obeying the satan-inspired beasts of Revelation 13, including the Vatican and the United States and their one world government and false religious system.

In Revelation chapter 14 verse 12 and in Revelation chapter 22 verse 14, those who will receive eternal life in Christ's kingdom are identified as the saints who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Christ. In contrast, those who willingly reject God's commandments, including the 7th day Sabbath commandment, will die for their disobedience since the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

Make the right choice: choose Christ, put your faith and trust in the Son of God, keep His holy ten commandments through the Holy Spirit (Exodus 20:1-17) and Christ will reward you, as a gift, with eternal life in His everlasting kingdom of love, peace and joy (Revelation 14:12; Revelation 22:14).

For more information and videos on Christian beliefs and prophecy, please visit:www.theseventhdayremnantchurch.org; www.remnantofgod.org, www.sdrministries.org, www.john1429.org, along with cregen124 and NicholasPoGM's YouTube channels.

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Cleaning Up the Vatican

By PAUL VALLELYJUNE 13, 2014

Credit

Angelo Carconi/Associated Press


LONDON — It looked extremely dramatic when Pope Francis fired the entire board of the Vatican’s financial watchdog last week. But that was only the half of it. The seismic changes that are underway behind the scenes in Rome are even more radical than public appearances suggest. And they offer illuminating insights into the steely character of the man who likes to present himself to the world as a model of smiling humility.

The body known as Rome’s Financial Information Authority (F.I.A.) supervises everything from the Vatican Bank to the real estate of the Holy See, its staff salaries and even the Vatican pharmacy. Its five Italian members were due to serve until 2016 when Francis asked them to resign early — to be replaced by an international team of financial experts that includes Joseph Yuvaraj Pillay, the man who turned around the Singapore economy, and Juan Zarate, a former financial security adviser to President George W. Bush.

The drastic move came after months of infighting between the old guard and the F.I.A.’s director, René Brülhart, a Swiss anti-money-laundering expert, charged with cleaning up one of the world’s most secretive banks, which has assets worth more than $8 billion. A former head of Liechtenstein’s financial intelligence unit, he found his reforms continually frustrated by an old-boy network. He complained to the pope, who swept aside the obstacle in a single move.

But there was more to it than that, as anyone would have suspected who knew the modus operandi of Jorge Mario Bergoglio when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires before he became pope. There, too, he had faced a banking scandal in which his predecessor, Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, had become embroiled in underwriting a multimillion dollar insurance deal for a family of prominent bankers who turned out to be paying all his credit card bills. When the bank went insolvent, bankers were jailed, and the Catholic Church was asked to repay huge sums it did not have, Cardinal Bergoglio called in the international accountants Arthur Andersen, closed the church bank and transferred its assets to commercial banks.

He acted swiftly, decisively and transparently — on several levels at once. And that is what he has been doing for the past year with the opaque finances of the Vatican and its scandal-mired bank.

He certainly needs to do so. The bank has had a highly dubious history since the 1980s when it was implicated in the collapse of Italy’s largest private bank, the Banco Ambrosiano, whose chairman, Roberto Calvi, was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London, an incident that was widely seen as a murder disguised as suicide. A warrant was issued for the arrest of the president of the Vatican Bank, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, alleging he was an accessory to fraudulent bankruptcy, but he was never put on trial.

The bank’s checkered history has continued until recent times. In a 2012 report, the Council of Europe’s monetary authority failed the Vatican Bank on seven of its 16 core anti-money-laundering regulations. Other banks distanced themselves from it to such an extent that in 2013 Deutsche Bank closed down the Vatican’s 80 cash machines and credit card payment services. Impropriety clung to the institution like a bad smell.

Quite rightly Pope Francis made reform of the Vatican Bank one of his first priorities. Within days of becoming pope he stripped the bank’s five supervisory cardinals of their $42,000 annual stipend. In a sermon at a Mass for bank staff he pointedly described their organization as “necessary up to a certain point.” He demanded tighter accounting, better reporting practices and enhanced internal controls. Ten months later, unhappy with progress, he dismissed all but one of the five cardinals in January. He also replaced the F.I.A.’s president with an archbishop with a track record of reform within the Vatican bureaucracy.

Shrewdly, as before, he has brought in outsiders. The U.S. regulatory and compliance consultants of Promontory Financial Group are combing through the bank’s 19,000 accounts. They have found poor cash-flow checks, inadequate documentation, ignorance on due diligence and a system of proxies that clouds who really controls many accounts. When the clerics in charge were asked how they answered to the regulator, they replied: “We answer to God.” Now they answer to Mr. Brülhart. Some 1,600 accounts have been closed so far.

He has hired other external advisers. Ernst & Young is scrutinizing Vatican property holdings. KPMG is bringing its accountancy systems up to international standards. McKinsey is reforming its media operations, which include TV, radio and a newspaper. Deloitte is advising on management.

But Francis wanted to address the issue at a deeper level too. Does the Catholic Church need its own bank at all? He set up a committee, which included the Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon, to ask more fundamental questions. It was given powers, in a letter of authority handwritten by Francis, to summon any documents and data it deemed necessary and told to report directly to the pope, bypassing the Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy.

That committee issued its report last month — and explains the timing of the F.I.A. house-cleaning. And that was not all. Two of the bank’s most longstanding senior officials were eased into early retirement. And a new business manager from Australia, Danny Casey, was brought in to force fiscal transparency and discipline across all Vatican departments. He will be the right-hand man of Cardinal George Pell, former archbishop of Sydney, a traditionalist but also a vocal critic of the dysfunction of the Curia under the last papacy. Cardinal Pell is head of the new Secretariat of the Economy created by Francis in February to bring financial discipline to the Vatican, where each department has been acting as an individual center of power.

At one point Francis seemed set on closing the Vatican Bank, which was founded more than 70 years ago. In the 1970s, the Vatican used it to finance covert anti-Communist missions in central America. In the 1980s, Pope John Paul II used it to channel money to the Polish Solidarity movement. Now, Francis appears to have been convinced that the bank is still needed because so many bishops, priests and religious orders work in countries without secure banking systems.

But the pope is adamant it must become transparent and accountable. He is considering setting up a Vatican central bank to more closely control transfers of money abroad. That would remove the possibility that the $3 billion the bank transfers each year could be used for money-laundering — though other measures will be needed to combat the abuse of accounts for Italian tax evasion.

The scandal clinging to Vatican finances taints an institution that Francis famously said he wants, above all, to be “a poor church, for the poor.” There are many in the Vatican, wedded to a more elitist view of the church, who are unhappy at this. So far they have been unsure how to resist a pope who operates outside the old Curia channels and acts with admirable unpredictability.

What helps Francis, oddly enough, is that the scandal is far from over. One of the Vatican’s most senior accountants, Msgr. Nunzio Scarano, who worked for 22 years in the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, the department in charge of paying Vatican salaries and managing its property and financial portfolios, is currently under arrest, awaiting trial on corruption and money laundering charges.

Nicknamed “Monsignor Cinquecento” after the 500-euro bills he routinely flashed in public, Monsignor Scarano owned luxury properties and expensive works of art. He has been accused by Italian magistrates of having transferred millions out of the Vatican Bank and smuggling it to Switzerland to help rich friends avoid taxes. The director of the Vatican Bank and his deputy, who were named in Italian court documents, have resigned. The court case will undoubtedly bring more explosive and embarrassing revelations.

On it goes. Even the previous pope’s right-hand man, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, is under investigation for using his influence to steer almost $20 million in Vatican Bank loans — money that was eventually lost — to a film company run by a friend. “It’s something that’s under study,” Pope Francis has told reporters. “It’s not clear. Maybe it could be true, but at this time nothing is definitive.”

One thing, however, is definite. Pope Francis knows that he has to get a grip on the Vatican’s chaotic finances. He has only just begun.

Paul Vallely is a visiting professor in public ethics at the University of Chester and the author of “Pope Francis: Untying the Knots.”


A version of this op-ed appears in print on June 14, 2014, in The International New York Times

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Vatican report shows 'significant progress' in supervision of financial activities

Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2014 7:01 pm






The Financial Intelligence Authority of the Holy See and Vatican City State (AIF) has presented its Annual Report for 2013. The report reviews the activities and statistics of AIF for 2013.

The year 2013 has seen a significant strengthening of the legal and institutional framework of the Holy See and Vatican City State to effectively combat financial crime, an institutionalisation of international collaboration of the competent authority of the Holy See with its foreign counterparts, and a massively improved performance in monitoring potential financial wrongdoing.

"In 2013 we have taken further decisive steps to foster the legal framework, and, at the same time, to make it work in practice" said Rene Brulhart, Director of the AIF. He continued: "The Evaluation conducted by Moneyval, the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism of the Council of Europe, in December 2013, and our statistics allow us to say that today we have a proper and equivalent system in place to prevent and fight financial crime. A system that is well in line with international standards."

The AIF has recorded a notable uptake in suspicious transaction reports (STR), from six in 2012 to 202 in 2013. This increase reflects both the development of the legal framework and a substantial improvement in the operational performance of the supervised entities with regard to the prevention of financial crime. Five reports have been passed on to the Vatican Promoter of Justice for further investigation by judicial authorities.

The number of requests from AIF submitted to foreign authorities has increased from one in 2012 to 28; the number of requests received by the AIF from foreign authorities has risen from 3 in 2012 to 53 in 2013.

"This increase is also due to international cooperation fostered by a series of bilateral agreements we have concluded," said Brulhart. In 2013, AIF became a member of the Egmont Group, the global network of Financial Intelligence Units, and signed various bilateral agreements to institutionalize mutual collaboration in the area of anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism. Memoranda of Understanding have been signed with Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia and the United States.

As already observed in 2012, the number of declarations of cash above the amount of EUR 10,000 has decreased again in 2013 to 1,557 declarations for outgoing cash (2012: 1,782) and 550 declarations for incoming cash (2012: 598). This is due to an increased monitoring by the competent authorities and the introduction of reinforced procedures at the supervised entities.

Through two Motu Proprio in July and August 2013, the Holy Father extended the competencies of the Holy See authorities, particularly AIF, and aligned the legal framework with international standards. By way of a third Motu Proprio in November 2013, the Holy Father responded to the requirements set forth by the extension of responsibilities of the AIF by issuing a new Statute for the AIF. In essence, the new Statute has built the AIF on two pillars, supervision and financial intelligence, and has clarified some aspects with regard to the governance, e.g. required professional and financial skills for key personnel of the AIF's bodies.

In the initial trimester of 2014, AIF conducted the first ordinary on-site inspection of the IOR to verify the implementation of the measures taken to prevent and counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism pursuant to the Law XVIII of 8 October 2013.

The inspection has shown substantial progress made by the IOR over the past 12 months. As a result of the inspection, AIF has developed an action plan for the full adaption of procedures to the requirements of Law XVIII and the implementation of further organizational and procedural improvements.

The Financial Intelligence Authority (AIF) is the competent authority of the Holy See/Vatican City State for supervision and financial intelligence for the prevention and countering of money-laundering and financing of terrorism.

Established by Pope Benedict XVI with the Apostolic Letter in form of Motu Proprio of 30 December 2010, AIF carries out its institutional activity according to the Statute attached to the above mentioned Motu Proprio and the Law n. CXXVII of 30 December 2010, as subsequently amended and integrated.

In July 2013, AIF became a member of the Egmont Group. Currently, AIF has signed Memoranda of Understanding for the international exchange of information with financial intelligence units of other states, such as Australia, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Italy, Monaco, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and the United States of America.



Source: VIS

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Vatican plays down mafia threat to Pope

1:54am November 16, 2013


Pope Francis delivers a speech during a meeting of the world's cardinals. (AAP)


The Vatican has downplayed a warning that Pope Francis could be targeted by the mafia because of his reforms to Holy See financial bodies.

"There is no reason for concern, and there is no need to feed alarmism," Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.

He added that the Vatican - and, by extension, the Pope - was "extremely calm" regarding the alleged threat.

The warning was voiced by Nicola Gratteri, a respected state prosecutor in the southern Calabria region, who said the vicious local mafia, the 'Ndrangheta, is "nervous" the Pope is threatening its interests.

"Those who up to now have fed off the power and wealth coming directly from the Church are nervous, upset," he said in an interview published by the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano this week.

The Pope, Gratteri said, "is dismantling the Vatican's economic centres. If the mafia bosses can trip him up, they won't hesitate."

Gratteri didn't substantiate his warning. But his words reverberated through the Italian and foreign media, sparking fears for the pontiff's safety.

Initially the Vatican tried to dismiss the allegation. But from Thursday it started saying it was simply taking the warning in its stride.

Implied in Gratteri's comments is that Italy's mafia has its tentacles in the Vatican's obscure financial dealings and agencies, some of which have been marred by scandal.

Since taking the papacy in March, Pope Francis has set about cleaning up the Holy See's vast holdings and making them more transparent.

One of his first steps was to install a special commission tasked with investigating the Vatican's bank and another to probe Vatican finances in general.

The Pope has also called in a US consultancy, Promontory Financial Group, to conduct an external review of the Vatican bank's money-laundering rules and, more recently, to look into the internal agency handling its many real estate holdings.

The Vatican's bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, was notably the main shareholder of the Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in 1982 amid accusations of laundering money for the mafia.

Banco Ambrosiano's chairman Roberto Calvi - dubbed "God's Banker" - was found hanging from a London bridge that year in a suspected murder by mobsters.

The Vatican's agency handling its real estate assets, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, came under scrutiny when a prelate, Nunzio Scarano, was arrested in June on suspicion of acting as a front for dubious international payments made through the Vatican bank.

Scarano wrote to the Pope to defend himself, accusing cardinals of covering up irregular financial activities carried out by his superiors.

Italy's various crime syndicates have been held responsible for several high-profile assassinations and abductions.

Although the Sicilian mafia Cosa Nostra is perhaps the best-known, the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta, whose name comes from the Greek for courage or loyalty, is considered by many as more dangerous and difficult to predict.

It has a tight clan structure which has made it famously difficult to penetrate, and specialises in drug and arms trafficking, prostitution, extortion and illegal construction.

The 'Ndrangheta runs an international crime network from its base in Calabria and has been linked to operations across western and northern Europe and as far afield as the Americas and Australia.


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Vatican Inc.

People & Power : Vatican Inc.
 

 AlJazeeraEnglish

Published on Mar 7, 2013

People & Power examines the secretive world of the Vatican's bank.


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Vatican Bank Director Resigns Amid Scandal

The director of the Vatican bank and his deputy have resigned over a financial scandal that has already seen one monsignor jailed.

In a statement, the Vatican said Paolo Cipriani and his deputy Massimo Tulli stepped down "in the best interest of the institute and the Holy See".

Mr Cipriani, along with the bank's then-president, was placed under investigation by Rome prosecutors in 2010 for alleged violations of Italy's anti-money laundering rules after financial police seized €23m (£19.7m) from a Vatican account at a Rome bank.

Neither has been charged and the money was eventually ordered to be released.

But the bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), has remained under the spotlight amid concerns it has been used as an offshore tax haven.

Last week, a Vatican accountant was arrested as part of the broadening investigation into IOR.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano is accused of corruption and slander in connection with a plot to smuggle €20m (£17.1m) into Italy from Switzerland without reporting it to customs officials.

Scarano, dubbed "Don 500" by the Italian media because of his alleged favourite euro banknote, admitted under questioning on Monday that his behaviour was wrong, but insisted that he was only trying to help out friends.

According to wiretapped phone conversations, Scarano was in regular contact with both Mr Cipriani and Mr Tulli to get the required bank approval to move large amounts of cash into and out of his IOR accounts.

Current IOR president, Ernst von Freyberg, will serve as interim director, a Vatican statement said.

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Cleric and 2 Others Arrested in Vatican Bank Investigation

By RACHEL DONADIO

Published: June 28, 2013



ROME — The Italian police on Friday arrested a prelate, a financial broker and an agent of the Italian Secret Service on corruption charges as part of a complex plot in which the priest — who is already under investigation on suspicion of money laundering involving the Vatican Bank — is accused of trying to repatriate millions of euros from Switzerland to Italy in a private plane.

Francesco Pecoraro/Associated Press

Prosecutors allege that a broker and a secret service agent had been plotting to help Monsignor Nunzio Scarano bring 20 million euros into Italy from Switzerland in a private jet.

Those arrested were charged with fraud, corruption and slander as part of a broad investigation tied to the famously secretive Vatican Bank.

Prosecutors say that the broker and the Secret Service agent had been plotting to help the priest bring 20 million euros, or $26 million, into Italy from Switzerland in a private jet, the ANSA news agency reported. It said that the 20 million euros belonged to “some friends of the monsignor.” The plot never went through.

In a statement, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said that the priest, Msgr. Nunzio Scarano, had been suspended from his position at one of the Vatican’s main financial departments “more than a month ago, ever since his superiors were informed that he was under investigation.”

The Vatican spokesman said that the Holy See had not received any requests from the Italian authorities, but confirmed its “willingness for full collaboration,” and that the Vatican’s internal financial watchdog was following the matter and would take appropriate measures “if necessary.” Those would include requesting that the Vatican’s internal prosecutor open an internal investigation into the monsignor.

A Vatican official said Monsignor Scarano had been suspended from his position as an accountant at APSA, a department that oversees the Vatican’s real estate holdings, after prosecutors in Salerno opened a separate investigation into money laundering. The official indicated that the suspension was a sign that the Vatican was stepping up its internal vigilance.

Only priests, religious, Catholic institutions, employees of Vatican City State and diplomats accredited to the Holy See are allowed to have accounts at the Vatican Bank, known as the Institute for Works of Religion, but rumors have long swirled about whether accounts were used as fronts for other interests, including organized crime and Italian politicians.

In the past, the Italian prelates who controlled the Vatican Bank tended to see any inquires into possible malfeasance as an attack on its sovereignty. Pope Francis and his predecessor, Benedict XVI, have tried to make the Vatican Bank more transparent.

It was not immediately clear whether the Vatican was cooperating with Italian authorities or whether the arrests stemmed from several suspicious transactions — six in 2012 and seven in the first half of 2013 — that Vatican officials said they had flagged and brought to the attention of the Vatican’s own internal prosecutors.

The arrests Friday were the most dramatic events to emerge from the Rome prosecutors’ investigation into the Vatican Bank since 2010, when prosecutors seized 23 million euros from two external accounts used by the Vatican Bank and placed its then-president and director general under investigation.

It had been acting on a warning from the Bank of Italy urging Italian banks to be more vigilant in their dealings with the Vatican, which has not come into full compliance with European banking norms, making it costly and problematic for other banks to do business with it.

In recent years, the Vatican has been under pressure to meet European norms as a condition for using the euro. In 2010, it created an internal financial watchdog and last year appointed as its director a Swiss lawyer who had helped Liechtenstein clean up its murky banking system.

This month, Pope Francis appointed a trusted prelate to a top post at the bank and on Wednesday, the pope took a further step and created a committee of prelates and a Harvard Law School professor to report directly to him on the bank’s progress.

In an interview last month, the new president of the Vatican Bank, Ernst von Freyberg, who was appointed in February by Benedict in one of his last acts as pope, said that he was committed to making the bank more transparent and compliant.

Last year, a report by Moneyval, a monitoring agency under the Council of Europe, said that the Vatican had made progress but still needed to improve in terms of compliance and customer due diligence. The Vatican must submit a new progress report to Moneyval this fall.

Vatican officials have said that the Vatican needs a bank to help Catholic institutions operate around the world, including in politically sensitive areas. The bank had total assets of 7.1 billion euros under management in 2012, most of it invested in government bonds, and turned a net profit of 86.6 million euros.

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Was the Pope pushed? An abuse scandal, corruption and the dark intrigue behind Benedict's shock resignation

By GUY ADAMS

PUBLISHED: 18:13 EST, 15 February 2013 | UPDATED: 19:05 EST, 15 February 2013

The room full of people was still in shock at the news of his resignation when Pope Benedict XVI tottered across the marble floor towards a tall, heavy-set man in the red robe and skullcap of a cardinal.

As cameras rolled on Monday in the gilded Sala del Concistoro at the Apostolic Palace in Rome, Benedict grabbed the man by his shoulders, looked deep into his eyes and — struggling to hold back tears — shared a long embrace.

It was a public show of affection to one of the Pope’s most important fratres carissimi or ‘dear brothers’.



Dark intrigue: Benedict's decision to become the first leader of the Catholic Church to step aside since the Middle Ages has left a slew of unanswered questions

It was also a display of respect. For the man was Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who as Dean of the College of Cardinals will organise the coming conclave at the Sistine chapel where 117 cardinals from across the world choose the next pontiff.

Yet in these ancient hallways, things are never entirely as they seem.

Dust may still be settling on Benedict XVI’s unexpected resignation, at the age of 85, but cynical eyes have begun to turn towards his relationship with Sodano the power-broker.

Sodano has lost little time in expressing his ‘sense of loss and almost disbelief’ at Benedict’s decision to quit, telling reporters that Monday’s announcement felt ‘like a lightning bolt in a clear blue sky’. But Vatican insiders smell a rat about those widely reported comments. They point out that, far from being surprised at Benedict’s announcement, Sodano had been told the previous Friday. And far from a ‘sense of loss’, previous form suggests the ambitious cardinal would have been delighted at the news.


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A liberal Pope? Not a prayer: Benedict’s successor will feel the shadow of his continuing presence in Vatican City



Benedict’s decision to become the first leader of the Catholic Church to step aside since the Middle Ages has left a slew of unanswered questions. In the official statement, the German-born Pope blamed his resignation on advancing years, saying declining health had left him unable to properly lead the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.

‘Having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,’ he said.

An official spokesman later added that Benedict is suffering from a ‘decline in vigour, both of the body and spirit’.

To a degree, that’s probably true. Italian newspapers have revealed Benedict suffered a ‘serious fall’ this year and underwent heart surgery in November to replace a pacemaker fitted after an earlier heart attack.



Dust may still be settling on Benedict XVI's unexpected resignation, at the age of 85, but cynical eyes have begun to turn towards his relationship with Cardinal Angelo Sodano (pictured) - the power-broker

But in a world governed by tradition, serving Popes don’t step aside, no matter how ailing.

Benedict’s predecessor, John Paul II, served for 27 years, surviving an assassination attempt. After being diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2001, he suffered severe difficulties speaking and even sitting up. But he carried on until his death in 2005.

The last pope who failed to carry on until the bitter end was Gregory XII, who was forced out in 1415.


The last to go voluntarily was Celestine V, who resigned in 1294.

But if the fact of the Pope’s departure is unusual, its timing looks downright suspicious.

The Vatican claims he’d been considering the move for almost a year, praying intensively as he decided whether to quit.

But if so, why did he recently allow officials to schedule an official tour of Brazil for July?

Why, too, insiders wonder, shortly before Christmas did Benedict promote one of the Vatican’s most glamorous figures, fellow German Georg Ganswein, to Archbishop and the high-profile position of Prefect of his Pontifical Household?

At the time of his appointment, the 56-year-old — who is known as ‘the Black Forest Adonis’ and ‘Gorgeous George’ on account of his good looks — was billed as the perfect right-hand man to protect an ageing Pontiff from the daily grind of Vatican politics.

Benedict promoted Georg Ganswein (pictured) to Archbishop and the high-profile position of Prefect of his Pontifical Household

Ganswein then appeared on the cover of last month’s Italian Vanity Fair, billed as the ‘George Clooney of Catholicism’.

The article pointed out that papal aides are promoted to archbishop when an ailing Pope wishes to create an unofficial ‘gatekeeper’. But if Benedict knew he was about to quit, why appoint Ganswein to this position?

The Pope’s departure also comes at a time of scrutiny over the Vatican’s alleged links to the world of organised crime.

Last summer saw the scandalous trial of Paolo Gabriele, his butler, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing confidential documents from his master’s desk and passing them to a journalist.

The papers were given to Gianluigi Nuzzi, a reporter whose ‘Vatileaks’ scoop alleged corruption at the Vatican Bank, including the laundering of £160 million on behalf of the Mafia.

In the wake of Nuzzi’s revelations, the bank’s president was forced to resign. A replacement is due to be announced in the coming months.

His identity is of great concern to organised criminals, who fear the ‘wrong’ appointee will attempt to wipe clean the tarnished bank’s slate by confessing a raft of previous financial misdeeds.

Benedict was expected to usher in just such a new broom; his successor may not. The fact his departure is good news for the mafia has left many suspicious.

But the most curious figure in the shock resignation is Cardinal Sodano.

The Pope and the cardinal are hardly allies. Indeed, for years they have been regarded as bitter rivals, clashing repeatedly as they each climbed the slippery pole of the hierarchy.

Months after Benedict became Pope, Sodano resigned as the Vatican’s Secretary of State, its most senior political and diplomatic post, after 12 years in the high-profile job. This hardly makes him an obvious candidate for a public papal embrace.

The second source of suspicion is Sodano’s professed surprise at Monday’s news.

Several Vatican insiders, including Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, a top contender to be the next Pope, say Sodano learned of the coming resignation in Benedict’s private quarters the previous Friday.





Not allies: For many years, the Pope (right) and Cardinal Sodano (left) have been regarded as bitter rivals, clashing repeatedly as they each climbed the slippery pole of the hierarchy


If that is the case, then why did the Cardinal describe Benedict’s departure, three days later, as a bolt from the blue?

And what really happened at the Friday meeting? Though held in secret, reports in the Italian press claim there was a heated argument between the men over the fraught question of how the Church should deal with clergy accused of sexual abuse.

In recent years, Benedict has taken a relatively hard line on dealing with paedophile priests, an issue that has damaged the hierarchy’s reputation.

Not only has he apologised publicly to victims, he has also insisted that the Vatican, rather than individual diocese, should be in charge of investigating future abuse complaints, referring them to the police whenever possible.

Sodano takes a different view. The cardinal has been reluctant to proceed with investigations into suspect priests over the years, and famously used a prayer during Easter Mass in 2010 to describe the complaints of victims of abuse as ‘petty gossip’.

He has clashed with Benedict over this issue several times over the years. In 1995, they fell out over how to deal with Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, who resigned as Archbishop of Vienna after being accused of molesting young men.

While it seems Sodano had several reasons to seek the Pope's resignation, that doesn't mean he had the ability to execute such an audacious plot

Benedict advised the then Pope, John Paul II, to issue an apology over the appalling allegations, which were later proven. Sodano, as the Vatican’s Secretary of State, chose to over-rule him.

Then, in 1998, Sodano instructed Benedict — then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — to drop an investigation into multiple counts of abuse by Fr Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of a holy order called The Legionaries of Christ. In a plot twist worthy of a Dan Brown novel, a Catholic journal uncovered evidence that Sodano had issued the order after receiving $15,000 from the order for being its ‘cheerleader’.

Benedict waited eight years for revenge. In 2006, he removed Maciel — later revealed to have fathered several children by different women — from his post. Sodano’s resignation from Vatican Secretary of State came soon afterwards.

Yet while it seems Sodano had several reasons to seek the Pope’s resignation, that doesn’t necessarily mean he had the ability to execute such an audacious plot.

A hostile cardinal seeking to bring down a Pope would have to unearth a catastrophically devastating scandal from his past.

With Benedict’s childhood in the Hitler Youth and long career in a Church ridden with sex abuse allegations, there are avenues for attack. But eight years of scrutiny from the media has left little mud sticking to him.

There is a dubious incident from 1980, when as Archbishop of Munich he transferred a paedophile priest to another parish. And there have been complaints that during the Eighties and Nineties, in his role as head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he ignored complaints of abuse.

Getting the Pope to resign would have taken something more damning. Did Sodano stumble on a scandal? It seems unlikely.

A more plausible explanation is perhaps that constant exposure to Vatican politics had left the monkish and cerebral Benedict tired and desperate to find an escape.

‘Maybe an unpleasant meeting with Sodano pushed him over the edge,’ says a veteran insider. ‘The Vatileaks scandal showed the place to be completely dysfunctional. It’s been that way throughout history.’

As for Sodano, he’s no doubt hoping one piece of Vatican history repeats itself. The last time a College of Cardinals chose a new Pope was in 2005 and Benedict was Dean of the College of Cardinals. This time, of course, the dean is none other than Cardinal Angelo Sodano.

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Is the Pope in Jeopardy?

by Richard Bennett

Amidst pictures of the ailing condition of the Pope, news of an intense power struggle within the Vatican has overflowed publicly. The serious difficulties reveal ongoing financial corruption amidst ruthless infighting. These latest revelations regarding the affairs of the Vatican Bank are not startling as the Papacy has a long, long history of financial scandals. The current one was reported in The Australian on June 18, 2012,

In the latest scandal to engulf the Pope a church official has warned that a ‘time bomb’ is about to explode over mafia money allegedly invested in the Vatican bank. Prosecutors are investigating claims a Sicilian mafia godfather laundered cash through the Institute for Religious Works [IOR], as the bank is officially known. The move follows the arrest of the Pope’s former butler and the leaking of files outlining Vatican corruption, cronyism and infighting, in the worst crisis of the Pope’s seven-year papacy.¹

Many in the Catholic hierarchy understand the seriousness of the scandal in regard to human life. For example, the Financial Times noted,

Three weeks after he was dismissed as president of the Vatican bank and with a secret dossier he wrote now in the hands of Italian investigators, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi is said to be afraid for his life ... A veteran observer and friend of Mr Gotti Tedeschi confirmed reports that he feared for his life — not unjustly, the person said, given the bank’s murky history and mysterious death 30 years ago of Roberto Calvi, former chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, a bank partly owned by IOR that collapsed as a result of fraudulent bankruptcy. Mr Calvi — the so-called ‘God’s banker’ — was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London, a presumed victim of the Mafia.²

The real life drama that is happening has been called a time bomb about to explode. Yet, it is reported that the Pope seems not up to meeting the crisis, an opinion that recent photographs of him corroborate.

The mood at the Vatican is apocalyptic. Pope Benedict XVI seems tired, and both unable and unwilling to seize the reins amid fierce infighting and scandal. While Vatican insiders jockey for power and speculate on his successor, Joseph Ratzinger has withdrawn to focus on his still-ambiguous legacy.³

The Pope’s Depleted Legacy

The portrayals and descriptions of Vatican City and its Pope leave much to be explained. For example,

Here are a few excerpts from the Reuters’ story: Call it Conspiracy City. Call it Scandal City. Call it Leak City. These days the holy city has been in the news for anything but holy reasons. ‘It is a total mess,’ said one high-ranking Vatican official who spoke, like all others, on the condition of anonymity.⁴

On June 5, 2012, the UK Telegraph reported that,

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s Secretary of State and the Pope’s right-hand man, said the theft and leaking of compromising documents by unidentified whistle—blowers seemed to be part of a concerted campaign against the 85-year-old pontiff. ...Exactly who is behind the theft of the papers and letters remains a mystery, but there is widespread speculation in Rome that they are part of Machiavellian machinations at the very highest levels of the Catholic Church hierarchy.⁵

Some news sources speak of various mysterious scheming against the Pope as the reason why these calamities have come upon Benedict XVI while others are adamant that the Pope should be using his power more actively by taking charge of the situation. The Australian reports that “...Benedict XVI, 85, implicitly denounced the leaks as the work of the devil.”⁶ The Pope is undoubtedly right on that score, but not primarily from the causes that are presently being named. Rather from a biblical perspective, the real starting point and reasons for the Pope’s woes are to be found elsewhere.

Some Basic Reasons for Pope’s Afflictions

A basic reason for the Pope’s woes is to be found in his compilation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1994. Under the authority of Pope John Paul II, as Cardinal Ratzinger at the time, Benedict XVI held the office of Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In that capacity, he was responsible for oversight and publication of the official Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994). This was the first universal Catholic catechism in nearly five hundred years, and in it is clearly stated the following dogma that Catholics must believe,

...the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered.⁷

Thus, the eleventh century claim of Pope Gregory VII that the Pope is Christ’s Vicar has been newly expanded in the 1994 Catechism. What Ratzinger has added is the claim for universal, absolute power for the Pope.⁸ The Lord Jesus Christ entrusted the universal care of redeemed souls into the safekeeping of the Divine Person of the Holy Spirit. That Ratzinger should lay claim to the office of Vicar of Christ is totally absurd and blasphemous. The Holy Spirit alone is the Vicar of Christ. Because there is a direct connection between the redemption of Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, it is a soul-damning lie to credit the role of the Holy Spirit to the Pope of Rome. Nevertheless, Ratzinger spoke and taught publicly against the Holy Spirit when he claimed that the office of the Holy Spirit as Vicar of Christ is the office of the Roman Pontiff.⁹

Also in his Catechism, Ratzinger allowed an immensely significant statement concerning the grace of the Holy Spirit. The exact words of the salient statement are the following,

The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation. ‘Sacramental grace’ is the grace of the Holy Spirit, given by Christ and proper to each sacrament.¹⁰

This identification of “Sacramental grace” with the Holy Spirit of God is a formal and explicit sin against the Holy Spirit and must therefore bear the consequences of such a sin. Ratzinger not only published the statement, he has taught the same publicly. For example, when he as Pope gave a message for World Youth Day in 2008, he said, “[T]he Holy Spirit is the ‘soul,’ the vital breath of Christian life itself, through the sacraments of Christian initiation — Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist.”¹¹ Thus instead of teaching that salvation of God is directly given by grace alone, received through faith alone and in Christ alone, the Pope formally ascribed salvation as coming circuitously from the Catholic Church through three papal sacraments. In attributing to these three papal sacraments the Holy Spirit’s life-giving power of grace, the Pope has again blasphemed the Holy Spirit. The consequence of such an official dogma is inevitable. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is by its very nature an eternal, damnable sin.

Who is this Pope in so much Turmoil?

Joseph Ratzinger was born into a traditional Bavarian farming family in 1927. At the age of 14, he joined the Hitler Youth, as was required of young Germans of the time. Later he was drafted into an anti-aircraft unit in Munich.

He deserted the German army towards the end of the war and was briefly held as a prisoner of war by the Allies in 1945. He was ordained a priest ofMunich in 1951. Later, he taught at the University of Bonn from 1959, and in 1966, took a chair in dogmatic theology at the University of Tuebingen. In 1969, he moved to Regensburg University in his native Bavaria and rose to become its dean and vice president. In March 1977, he was appointed Archbishop of Munich. Then in June 1977, Pope Paul VI appointed him Cardinal of Munich.

In Rome, 23 years later, he was appointed the head of The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.¹² In that position, Ratzinger issued an official Papal decree called “Dominus Iesus.” In Section 16 of “Dominus Iesus,”¹³ he asserted that, “The fullness of Christ’s salvific mystery belongs also to the Church, inseparably united to her Lord.” And, “The Lord Jesus, the only Saviour, did not only establish a simple community of disciples, but constituted the Church as a salvific mystery: he himself is in the Church...” Ratzinger’s claim that Christ’s salvation belongs to — and is “in” the Catholic Church — is a damnable lie.

Moreover, Ratzinger had already alleged that, “Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy.”¹⁴ Such a concept of a supposed inner righteousness by means of a physical sacrament is a lie. The risen Christ proclaimed, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be damned.”¹⁵ Faith is absolutely necessary for salvation; baptism is an ordinance that follows it. Thus, Ratzinger’s dogma in “Dominus Iesus,” that the “fullness of Christ’s salvific mystery” belongs to the Church of Rome, was and is a soul-damning lie. He was again attempting to substitute the Catholic Church for the Person and saving work of the Lord Jesus.

Finally, at age 78, Ratzinger was elected Pope. Thus, on April 19, 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI. From the position of Supreme Roman Pontiff, he continued to decree dogma, while at the same time upholding the dogmas he had already published in the Catechism. One of these key dogmas is his alleged claim that the Catholic Church can forgive absolutely all manner of sins, no matter how serious. The exact words of his decree are, “There is no offense, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive.”¹⁶ While he still claims that his Church can forgive all offenses no matter how serious, a most pertinent question must be answered: can his Catholic Church forgive his own sin against the Holy Spirit? Or asked differently, can Ratzinger’s sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit be forgiven by his decree that the Catholic Church can forgive all sins?

Dilemmas and Hazards Abound

Serious major problems have been stirring up intense turmoil within the Vatican. Many ask the question: how will Benedict XVI be able to survive? It may be that he is fearful for his life in a number of ways. Regarding corruption in financial matters, it is undoubtedly on his mind that Pope John Paul I was only one month in office when he died while addressing Vatican bank corruption charges at the time.

Investigative reporter, David Yallop, alleges in his book, In God’s Name, that Pope John Paul I, Albino Luciani was killed. Authors of books and articles continue to investigate his death. For example it is recently reported that,

“Yet another book has been written on the suspicious death of Pope John Paul I, this time by a Spanish priest named Father Jesus Lopez Saez. Building upon the work of David

Yallop, Father Saez [states] ‘the precise circumstances attending the discovery of the body of John Paul I eloquently demonstrate that the Vatican practiced a disinformation campaign.’ The Vatican told one lie after another: ‘Lies about little things, lies about big things. All these lies had but one purpose: to disguise the fact that Albino Luciani, Pope John Paul I, had been assassinated.”¹⁷

The Catholic New service Zenit reported that Ratzinger at the time said that, “his death was totally unexpected....at the time of his election, John Paul I seemed to enjoy good health.”¹⁸ Ratzinger was a key figure in the Vatican at the time and certainly knows the facts. He would also know of strange deaths of other Popes. For example, just a few of the many alleged murders of popes include Stephen VII (896-897) strangled; Stephen IX (939-942) mutilated; John XII (955-964) murdered; Benedict VI (973-974) strangled; John XIV (983-984) starved or directly murdered; Gregory V (996-999) poisoned; Clement II (1046-1047) poisoned; Damasus II (1048) murdered; Pope Pius XI (1922-1929) assassinated.

It is reported that Benedict XVI has withdrawn himself from the infighting and power struggle in order to write his book on Jesus. One would hope that in doing so, he would find the true and living Lord Jesus Christ. In the meantime, on June 10 2012, the Salon Website reported that,

A “reform of the Curia” is probably a contradiction in terms. Its hierarchical, essentially medieval organizational model is incompatible with modern management. The Vatican is an anachronistic, albeit surprisingly tenacious system, in which pecking orders and an absurd penchant for secrecy and intrigue prevail.¹⁹

The 605 years of the Papacy’s Inquisition shows the true character of the Papacy. The murders — even of its own popes — over the horrific years of its history demonstrate its moral fiber. The Vatican system has never brought even one soul to Christ. Rather Christ Jesus’ words are as true for Catholic prelates as it was for the Pharisees to whom He said, “ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.”²⁰

Conclusion

The Lord withstood the fanatically devout Pharisees with a very strong warning. They were looking to their own traditions and self-righteousness as ground for acceptance with God. Because they did not believe that the Lord Jesus was the Savior, He confronted them with the words, “ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”²¹ Like the Pharisees, present-day Catholics keenly believe in the traditions of their Church and its dogmas, such as the dogmas of Pope Benedict XVI. Thus, like the Pharisees of old, the Lord’s warning applies to Catholics and all other unbelievers.

By the grace of God alone, true faith alone in Christ Jesus alone saves lost sinners from their sins and transforms their lives. If you do not have this true faith, you will die in your sins. Without true faith, which only God can give, you cannot be saved from the power of sin; therefore, most certainly, you will die in your sins. Your biggest question, therefore, is how can anyone be right with God since everyone is born with a sin nature? The answer is to trust on Jesus Christ’s perfect life and sacrifice as the only remedy for your sin problem. The Lord Jesus Christ died in place of those who are trusting on Him alone. His life and finished sacrifice alone are the only ransom for the believer. “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”²² Jesus Christ was the supreme example of one who manifested true greatness. He who is God’s Messiah, “the Son of Man,” might well have asserted His right to be ministered to by men. Instead, He came to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. This was the price demanded by the All Holy God in order that justice might be satisfied for the forgiveness of sins. As a result of this payment, the believer is freed from the bondage of sin and given everlasting life. The gift of God is the sheer love, mercy, and grace of God. Because, as the Scripture so clearly states it, “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”²³ He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”²⁴

The Lord Jesus Christ was personally All Holy; yet as the substitute for the believer’s sin, He rendered Himself legally responsible to the wrath of God. The purpose of Christ’s faithfulness in all that He did, culminating in His death on the cross, was that His righteousness might be credited to the believer. God legally constituted Christ to be “sin for us.” He was “made sin” because the sins of all of His people were transferred to Him. In like manner, God reckons to the believer Christ’s righteousness. Quite clearly, salvation is a judicial and gracious act of God, whereby a believing sinner has legal right standing in Christ Jesus. Thus, by the abundant grace given in Jesus Christ, we are not only redeemed from sin, a believer can live without fear and experience daily joy and thanksgiving. More and more the believer realizes that he or she is a new creation in the Lord; as His word proclaims, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”²⁵

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Notes

www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/mafia-vatican-funds-explosive/story-fnb64oi6-1226398035050 (6/22/2012)
www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/97dee988-b312-11e1-83a9-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1ySEGc4oQ (6/21/2012)
www.spiegel.de/international/europe/pope-benedict-focuses-on-legacy-while-ignoring-vatican-power-struggle-a-838830.html
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/monsignors-mutiny-shocking-report-details-vatican-pope-in-turmoil/politics/2012/02/14/34724 (6/22/2012)
http://telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/9312016/Vatican-secretary-of-state-says-Pope-Benedict-XVI-victim-of-ferocious-attacks.html(7/3/2012)
The Australian, op. cit.
Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994), Para. 882 Hereafter referred to as Catechism.
An example of his use of alleged absolute power was his denunciation of Reformation Churches on July 10, 2007. His authoritative statement stated that, “Christian Communities born out of the Reformation of the sixteenth century” cannot be “called ‘Churches’ in the proper sense.”
“Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.” Mark 3:28-29
Catechism Para 1129
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/youth/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20070720_youth_en.html 7/02/2012
Formerly known as the Office of the Inquisition, then the Holy Office, it is still housed in the same building in Rome as it had been during six horrendous centuries of torture and death when it carried out the Papal decrees.
www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000806_dominus-iesus_en.htm^l 7/02/2012
Catechism Para 1992
Mark 16:16
Catechism Para 982
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120130151745AAg8rR7 (7/20/2012)
http://www.zenit.org/article-8353?l=english (7/20/2012)
http://www.salon.com/2012/06/19/exhausted_in_the_vatican/ (7/21/2012)
Matthew 23:13
John 8:24
Mark 10:45
II Corinthians 5:21
Mark 16:16
II Corinthians 5:17

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Vatican In Chaos After Butler Arrested For Leaks

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY May 27, 2012, 01:06 pm ET

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican's investigation into the source of leaked documents has yielded its first target with the arrest of the pope's butler, but the investigation is continuing into a scandal that has embarrassed the Holy See by revealing evidence of internal power struggles, intrigue and corruption in the highest levels of the Catholic Church governance.

The detention of butler Paolo Gabriele, one of the few members of the papal household, capped one of the most convulsive weeks in recent Vatican history and threw the Holy See into chaos as it enters a critical phase in its efforts to show the world it's serious about complying with international norms on financial transparency.

The tumult began with the publication last weekend of a book of leaked Vatican documents including correspondence, notes and memos to the pope and his private secretary. It peaked with the inglorious ouster on Thursday of the president of the Vatican bank. And it concluded with confirmation Saturday that Pope Benedict XVI's own butler was the alleged mole feeding documents to Italian journalists in an apparent bid to discredit the pontiff's No. 2.

"If you wrote this in fiction you wouldn't believe it," said Carl Anderson, a member of the board of the Vatican bank which contributed to the whirlwind with its no-confidence vote in its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. "No editor would let you put it in a novel."

The bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, issued a scathing denunciation of Gotti Tedeschi in a memorandum obtained Saturday by The Associated Press. In it the bank, or IOR by its Italian initials, explained its reasons for ousting Gotti Tedeschi: he routinely missed board meetings, failed to do his job, failed to defend the bank, polarized its personnel and displayed "progressively erratic personal behavior."

Gotti Tedeschi was also accused by the board of leaking documents himself: The IOR memorandum said he "failed to provide any formal explanation for the dissemination of documents last known" to be in his possession.

In an interview with the AP, Anderson said the latter accusation was independent of the broader "Vatileaks" scandal that has rocked the Vatican for months. But he stressed: "It is not an insignificant issue."

Gotti Tedeschi hasn't commented publicly about his ouster or the reasons behind it, saying he has too much admiration for the pope to do so. He also hasn't been arrested, avoiding the fate that befell Gabriele.

The 46-year-old father of three has been in Vatican detention since Wednesday after Vatican investigators discovered Holy See documents in his apartment. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Gabriele had met with his lawyers and that the investigation was taking its course through the Vatican's judicial system.

Gabriele, the pope's personal butler since 2006, has often been seen by Benedict's side in public, riding in the front seat of the pope's open-air jeep during Wednesday general audiences or shielding the pontiff from the rain. In private, he is a member of the small papal household that also includes the pontiff's private secretaries and four consecrated women who care for the papal apartment.

Lombardi said Gabriele's detention marked a sad development for all Vatican staff. "Everyone knows him in the Vatican, and there's certainly surprise and pain, and great affection for his beloved family," the spokesman said.

The "Vatileaks" scandal has seriously embarrassed the Vatican at a time when it is trying to show the world financial community that it has turned a page and shed its reputation as a scandal plagued tax haven.

Vatican documents leaked to the media in recent months have undermined that effort, alleging corruption in Vatican finance as well as internal bickering over the Holy See's efforts to comply with international norms to fight money laundering and terror financing.

The Vatican in July will learn if it has complied with the financial transparency criteria of a Council of Europe committee, Moneyval — a key step in its efforts to get on the so-called "white list" of countries that share financial information to fight tax evasion.

Anderson acknowleged that the events of the last week certainly haven't cast the Holy See in the best light. And he said the bank's board appreciated that the ouster of its president just weeks before the expected Moneyval decision could give the committee pause.

"The board considered that concern and decided that all things considered it was best to take the action at this time," Anderson said. "These steps were taken to increase the IOR's position vis-a-vis Moneyval."

The Vatileaks scandal began in January when Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi broadcast letters from the former No. 2 Vatican administrator to the pope in which he begged not to be transferred for having exposed alleged corruption that cost the Holy See millions of euros in higher contract prices. The prelate, Monsignor Carlo Maria Vigano, is now the Vatican's U.S. ambassador.

Nuzzi, author of "Vatican SpA," a 2009 volume laying out shady dealings of the Vatican bank based on leaked documents, last weekend published "His Holiness," which presented a trove of other documents including personal correspondence to the pope and his secretary — many of them painting Benedict’s No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, in a negative light.

Nuzzi has said he was offered the documents by multiple Vatican sources and insisted he didn't pay a cent € to any of them.

Gabriele was in Vatican custody and unavailable for comment. No known motive has come to light as to why Gabriele, if he is found to be the key mole, might have passed on the documents. Nuzzi declined to comment Saturday on whether Gabriele was among his sources.

Bertone, 77, has been blamed for a series of gaffes and management problems that have plagued Benedict's papacy and, according to the leaked documents, generated a not inconsiderable amount of ill will directed at him from other Vatican officials.

"For some time and in various parts of the church, criticism even by the faithful has been growing about the lack of coordination and confusion that reign at its center," Cardinal Paolo Sardi, the former No. 2 official in the Vatican secretariat of state, wrote to the pope in 2009, according to the letter cited in "His Holiness."

Anderson, who heads the Knights of Columbus, a major U.S. lay Catholic organization, said he was certain the Holy See would weather the storm and that the Vatican bank, at least, could move forward under a new leader with solid banking credentials as well as a desire to show off the bank's transparency.

"I hope this will be the beginning of a new chapter for the IOR and part of that chapter will be restoring the public image of the IOR," he told AP. "I think we have a good story to tell."

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