Ernesto Pacelli was a financial adviser to Pope Leo XIII

Pope Leo XIII

Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...

, Pope Pius X

Pope Pius X

Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...

, and Pope Benedict XV

Pope Benedict XV

Pope Benedict XV , born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, reigned as Pope from 3 September 1914 to 22 January 1922...

 and the founder and president of the Banco di Roma from March 9, 1880 until 1916. Pacelli also served as an unofficial link between the Vatican

Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

 and the Italian government. Papal historian John Pollard

John Pollard

John Pollard may refer to:* John Pollard , American guitarist/composer, member of US rock group Phantanima* John Garland Pollard , American politician who served as governor of Virginia, 1930-1934* John F...

 calls him the "first of the great laymen to be associated with the finances of the Holy See

Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

."

His cousin, Eugenio Pacelli, became Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII

The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....

.

Career

Pacelli's involvement in the Vatican began when he secured financial compensation for Leo XIII from the Italian government in the aftermath of the collapse of the Banco Romano, the former bank of the Papal States

Papal States

The Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...

.

Pacelli discretely supplied financial advice and loans, and jobs to relatives of several prominent members of the Roman Curia

Roman Curia

The Roman Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the entire Catholic Church, together with the Pope...

, notably Pietro Gasparri

Pietro Gasparri

Pietro Gasparri was a Roman Catholic archbishop, diplomat and politician in the Roman Curia and signatory of the Lateran Pacts.- Biography :...

. Lai speculates that this may have contributed to a perception of Gasparri as nepotistic

Nepotism

Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....

 in the 1922 papal conclave

Papal conclave, 1922

After a reign of just eight years, Pope Benedict XV died on 22 January 1922 of pneumonia. At his death there were 61 members of the College of Cardinals. However, later that same day, Enrique Almaraz y Santos, the Archbishop of Toledo, died, leaving a college of 60 cardinals to elect Pope...

.

Banco di Roma

Due to the legal uncertainty of papal assets during the period of the Roman Question

Roman Question

thumb|300px|The breach of [[Porta Pia]], on the right, in a contemporaneous photograph.The Roman Question was a political dispute between the Italian Government and the Papacy from 1861 to 1929....

, several papal properties and stocks were nominally held by Pacelli's name, in no small part because of his position in the Banco di Roma.

At the time of the election of Pope Benedict XV

Pope Benedict XV

Pope Benedict XV , born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, reigned as Pope from 3 September 1914 to 22 January 1922...

 in 1914, the Holy See

Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

 owned approximately a fourth of the Banco di Roma. Following massive public withdrawals from the bank in early 1915, under the spectre of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, Benedict XV arranged a salvage package to the tune of ₤

Lira

Lira is the name of the monetary unit of a number of countries, as well as the former currency of Italy, Malta, San Marino and the Vatican City and Israel. The term originates from the value of a Troy pound of high purity silver. The libra was the basis of the monetary system of the Roman Empire...

 9 million—guaranteed by the Vatican's shares in the bank—from Credito Nazionale, a subset of the Catholic Banking Federation in March 1915. This action further aggravated Italian police informants within the Vatican, who in November 1915 began reporting that Benedict XV planned to transform the bank into an essentially Catholic "confessional" institution, and Pacelli was replaced by Carlo Santucci in 1916 as president of the Banco di Roma.

By April 1916, the bank's confidence crisis worsened, and Benedict XV authorized Pacelli, who was deeply indebted to the bank, to hand over 425,000 shares to the bank (purchased for ₤42.5 million but worth less than ₤15 million at the time), which had been held by Pacelli on behalf of the Administration of the Assets of the Holy See

Administration of the Assets of the Holy See

Administration of the Property of the Holy See was a commission that, until 1967, administered the property of the Holy See other than the money in cash and Italian government bonds received when the Financial Convention attached to the Lateran Treaty of 1929 was implemented.Its origin lay in the...

 (ABSS); Gasparri then authorized Pacelli to hand over another 90,000 shares in return for the proceeds from the sale of Pacelli's villa. Following these handovers, the Vatican no longer controlled any significant shares in the Banco di Roma, although it did still retain deposits.

Catholic media

In September 1907, Pacelli set up—through the Banco di Roma—the Società Editrice Romana (SER) with ₤150,000 of the bank's capital to bail out the Catholic daily Il Corriere d'Italia. SER would later bail out other Catholic dailies such as L'Avvenire d'Italia in Bologna

Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

, L'Italia in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, Il Momento in Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

, Il Messaggero Toscano in Pisa

Pisa

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...

, and La Sicilia Cattolica in Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

.

In November 1907, Pacelli founded Società Tipografica Editrice Romama, also to provide financial assistance to Catholic presses, but with ₤100,000 of the company's ₤150,000 in start-up capital coming directly from the ABSS.

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