The
Institute for Works of Religion ( –
IOR) commonly known as
Vatican Bank is located inside the
Vatican CityVatican City , officially the State of the Vatican City , is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, the capital city of Italy...
. It is run by a professional bank CEO who reports directly to a committee of
cardinalsA cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually a bishop, of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and making themselves available...
, and ultimately to the
PopeThe pope is the Bishop of Rome and, as such, is leader of the worldwide Catholic Church...
(or the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church during a
sede vacanteSede vacante is an expression, used in the Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church, that refers to the vacancy of the episcopal see of a particular church...
). Since its assets are not considered property of the
Holy SeeThe Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and 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 speaks for the whole Catholic...
, it is not overseen by the
Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy SeeThe Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See is an office of the Roman Curia, erected on 15 August 1967, and entrusted with overseeing all the offices of the Holy See that manage finances, regardless of their degree of autonomy....
, and it is listed in the
Annuario PontificioThe Annuario Pontificio is the annual directory of the Holy See. It lists all the popes to date and all officials of the Holy See's departments...
together with foundations such as the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel, which provides funds for training people to fight drought and desertification in nine African countries. The current President is Ettore Gotti Tedeschi.
The Institute was involved in a major political and financial scandal in the 1980s, concerning the 1982 $3.5 billion collapse of
Banco AmbrosianoBanco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank which collapsed in 1982. At the centre of the bank's failure was its chairman, Roberto Calvi and his membership in the illegal masonic lodge Propaganda Due...
, of which it was a major share-holder. The head of the Vatican Bank from 1971 to 1989, Father
Paul MarcinkusPaul Casimir Marcinkus was an American archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He was best known for his tenure as President of the Vatican Bank from 1971 through 1989.-Early life:...
, was under consideration for indictment in 1982 in Italy as an accessory of the
bankruptcyBankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay its creditors. Creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against a debtor in an effort to recoup a portion of what they are owed or initiate a restructuring...
; however, he was never brought to trial due to the Italian courts' ruling that the priest, being a high-ranking prelate of the Vatican, had diplomatic immunity from prosecution.
The Bank Identifier Code of the Vatican Bank is IOPRVAVX.
Origin
The
Istituto per le Opere di Religione was founded on 27 June 1942 by
Pope Pius XIIPope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as the 260th Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
. It absorbed the Amministrazione delle Opere di Religione (Administration of the Works of Religion), which was in no sense a bank, having been established by
Pope Leo XIIIPope Leo XIII , born Count Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci, was the 257th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903, succeeding Pope Pius IX. Reigning until the age of 93, he was the oldest pope, and had the third longest pontificate, behind Pius IX and John Paul II...
on 11 February 1887 to manage the much reduced funds at the disposal of the Pope after the complete loss of the
Papal StatesThe Papal States, State of the Church or Pontifical States were one of 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...
in 1870; these funds were greatly increased as part of the settlement of the
Roman Questionthumb|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....
by the Lateran Pacts of 1929.
The purpose of the Istituto per le Opere di Religione is "to provide for the safekeeping and administration of movable and immovable property transferred to entrusted to it by physical or juridical persons and intended for works of religion or charity".
It is thus not a department of the
Roman CuriaThe Roman Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the entire Roman Catholic Church, together with the Pope...
, and is therefore not among the departments of this central administrative structure of the
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
listed in
that section of the Holy See Web site.
Nor is it a
central bankA central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is a banking institution granted the exclusive privilege to a lend a government its currency...
responsible for a country's monetary policy and for maintaining the stability of a currency and money supply.
It is unlike a normal bank also in that any profit it makes does not go to shareholders, which in this case do not exist, but is used instead for religious and charitable purposes.
Organisation
According to the norms of its present statutes, which came into effect in 1990, the IOR is directed by a supervisory council and by an oversight commission of cardinals.
The Cardinal Commission for the Supervision of the Institute for Works of Religion is composed of:
- Chair: Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone
- Attilio Cardinal Nicora, president of Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See
The Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See is part of the Roman Curia that deals with the "properties owned by the Holy See in order to provide the funds necessary for the Roman Curia to function". . It was established by Pope Paul VI on 15 August 1967. Its current President is...
(Apsa);
- Jean-Louis Cardinal Tauran, French;
- Telesphore Cardinal Toppo, Indian;
- Odilo Pedro Cardinal Scherer, Brazilian.
As of 23 September 2009 the supervisory council is composed of:
- President: Ettore Gotti Tedeschi
- Vice-President: Ronaldo Hermann Schmitz
- Carl A. Anderson
Carl Albert Anderson is the thirteenth and current Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus. Anderson is vice president of the Washington session of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family....
- Giovanni De Censi
- Manuel Soto Serrano
The oversight commission is composed of five cardinals headed by
Cardinal Secretary of StateThe Cardinal Secretary of State—officially Secretary of State of His Holiness The Pope—presides over the Vatican Secretariat of State, which is the oldest and most important dicastery of the Roman Curia...
Tarcisio Bertone. Since February 2008, the other cardinals are Attilio Nicora, President of the
Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic SeeThe Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See is part of the Roman Curia that deals with the "properties owned by the Holy See in order to provide the funds necessary for the Roman Curia to function". . It was established by Pope Paul VI on 15 August 1967. Its current President is...
; Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the
Pontifical Council for Interreligious DialogueThe Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue is a dicastery of the Roman Curia. It was erected by Pope Paul VI on May 19, 1964 as the Secretariat for Non-Christians, and later renamed by Pope John Paul II on June 28, 1988....
; Telesphore Placidus Toppo, Archbishop of
RanchiRanchi is the capital city of the Indian state of Jharkhand.Jharkhand accounts for 40% of mineral resources of India.Alone Ranchi accounts for 50% mineral production of the state,nearing about 18% of nation's mineral production.For this reason Ranchi is also called the Manchester of the East...
; Odilo Pedro Scherer, Archbishop of
São PauloSão Paulo is the largest city in Brazil and the world's 7th largest metropolitan area. The city is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous Brazilian state. It is also the richest city in Brazil. The name of the city honors Saint Paul. São Paulo exerts strong regional influence in...
.
Controversy
The Vatican Bank is said to be a successful and profitable bank. By the 1990s, the Bank had invested somewhere over US$10 billion in foreign companies. In 1968 Vatican authorities hired
Michele SindonaMichele Sindona was an Italian banker and convicted felon. Known in banking circles as "The Shark", Sindona was a member of Propaganda Due , an Italian lodge of Masons, and had clear connections to the Mafia...
as a financial advisor, despite Sindona's questionable past. It was Sindona who was chiefly responsible for the massive influx of money when he began laundering the
Gambino crime familyThe Gambino crime family is one of the "Five Families", or borgata, that control organized crime activity in New York City. It is part a United States-wide criminal network known as the Mafia . The group is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963...
's
heroinHeroin, or diacetylmorphine , also known as diamorphine , is a semi-synthetic opioid drug synthesized from morphine, a derivative of the opium poppy. It is the 3,6-diacetyl ester of morphine...
monies (taking a 50% cut) through a shell corporation "Mabusi". This laundering was accomplished with the help of another banker,
Roberto CalviRoberto Calvi was an Italian banker dubbed "God's Banker" by the press due to his close association with the Vatican. A native of Milan, Calvi was the chairman of Banco Ambrosiano which collapsed in one of modern Italy's biggest political scandals, and his death in London in June 1982 has been the...
, who managed the Banco Ambrosiano. Both Calvi and Sindona were members of the
P2 LodgePropaganda Due , or P2, was a Masonic lodge operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to 1976 , and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally from...
.
When
Pope John Paul IPope John Paul I , born Albino Luciani, , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and as Sovereign of Vatican City from 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent Year of Three Popes...
became Pope in 1978 he was informed about the allegations of wrongdoing at the Vatican Bank, and instructed Jean-Marie Villot, Cardinal Secretary of State and head of the papal Curia, to investigate the matter thoroughly. Pope John Paul I died after only 33 days in office, leading to claims that he had been murdered as a result of discovering a scandal. Pope John Paul I is generally accepted to have died from natural causes, although some medical experts believe that he may have died from a
pulmonary embolismPulmonary embolism is a blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches by a substance that has travelled from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream . Usually this is due to embolism of a thrombus from the deep veins in the legs, a process termed venous thromboembolism...
or an adverse reaction to the medication that he was taking rather than from a heart attack as was stated in original press reports of his death.
Banco Ambrosiano scandal
The Vatican Bank was
Banco AmbrosianoBanco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank which collapsed in 1982. At the centre of the bank's failure was its chairman, Roberto Calvi and his membership in the illegal masonic lodge Propaganda Due...
's main share-holder. Father
Paul MarcinkusPaul Casimir Marcinkus was an American archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He was best known for his tenure as President of the Vatican Bank from 1971 through 1989.-Early life:...
, head of the Institute for Religious Works from 1971 to 1989, was indicted in
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
in 1982 as an accessory in the $3.5 billion collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, one of the major post-war financial scandals. Banco Ambrosiano was accused of
launderingMoney laundering is the process of creating the appearance that large amounts of money obtained from serious crimes, such as drug trafficking or terrorist activity, originated from a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions with varying definitions...
drug money for the Sicilian Mafia, which used
Propaganda DuePropaganda Due , or P2, was a Masonic lodge operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to 1976 , and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally from...
(aka "P2"), a mobbed up Masonic lodge, as an intermediary. P2 and its Worshipful Master,
Licio GelliLicio Gelli is an Italian financier, chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal. He was revealed in 1981 as being the Venerable Master of the clandestine Masonic lodge Propaganda Due ....
, were also involved in financing right wing terror groups during the 1970s. As for Fr. Marcinkus, he would never come to trial in Italy, where courts ruled that he possessed
diplomatic immunityDiplomatic immunity is a form of legal immunity and a policy held between governments, which ensures that diplomats are given safe passage and are considered not susceptible to lawsuit or prosecution under the host country's laws...
. He lived in retirement in
Sun City, ArizonaSun City is a census-designated place and unincorporated town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. The population was 38,309 at the 2000 census...
(US) until his death on February 21 2006.
The Vatican Bank has denied having legal responsibility for the Ambrosiano's downfall but did acknowledge "moral involvement", and paid $241m (£169m) to creditors. As of 2006, investigations are continuing concerning the murder of Ambrosiano's chairman,
Roberto CalviRoberto Calvi was an Italian banker dubbed "God's Banker" by the press due to his close association with the Vatican. A native of Milan, Calvi was the chairman of Banco Ambrosiano which collapsed in one of modern Italy's biggest political scandals, and his death in London in June 1982 has been the...
, which, according to
Ernest BackesErnest Backes was #3 of clearing chamber Clearstream , in charge of relations with clients, and was fired in May 1983...
, former #3 of
ClearstreamClearstream Banking S.A. is the custody and settlement division of Deutsche Börse, based in Luxembourg.It was created in January 2000 through the merger of Cedel International and Deutsche Börse Clearing, part of the Deutsche Börse Group, which owns the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Cedel, established...
, may have been linked to the death of Gérard Soisson, who used to work for Clearstream, a "bank of banks" which practices
financial clearingIn banking and finance, clearing denotes all activities from the time a commitment is made for a transaction until it is settled. Clearing is necessary because the speed of trades is much faster than the cycle time for completing the underlying transaction....
. According to recent wiretap information, however, Calvi's death was almost certainly decreed by the
CupolaThe Sicilian Mafia Commission, known as Commissione or Cupola, is a body of leading Mafia members to decide on important questions concerning the actions of, and settling disputes within the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra...
, the ruling council of the Sicilian Mafia, which had come to view Calvi as a liability since the bank's collapse.
Other allegations
Several books, such as
Unholy Trinity: How the Vatican's Nazi Networks Betrayed Western Intelligence to the Soviets,
Genocide in Satellite Croatia 1941–1945 and
The Vatican's Holocaust, which appeared during the 1980s and 1990s were highly critical of the Vatican Bank's historical relations with right-wing
governmentsA government is the body within a community, political entity or organization which has the authority to make and enforce rules, laws and regulations.....
and especially with the collaborationist regime of the
Independent State of CroatiaThe Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany. The NDH was established on April 10, 1941 after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers...
during World War II. Sources such as these engendered initial defensive hostility and controversy, which centers on conclusions drawn from the documentation rather than the documents themselves.
According to a 1998 report issued by the
US State DepartmentThe United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States government, similar to foreign ministries, foreign offices, ministries of external relations, etc. in other countries...
, the
Nazi CroatianThe Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany. The NDH was established on April 10, 1941 after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers...
treasuryA treasury is any place where the currency or items of high monetary value are kept. The term was first used in Classical times to describe the votive buildings erected to house gifts to the gods, such as the Siphnian Treasury in Delphi or many similar buildings erected in Olympia, Greece by...
was illicitly transferred to the Vatican Bank and other banks after the end of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. For its part, the Vatican has repeatedly denied any
FranciscanThe term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic religious orders, also known as the Orders of Friars Minor, that follow a body of regulations known as "The rule of St. Francis", or a member of one of these orders. As well as Roman Catholic there are also small Old Catholic and...
participation in
UstashiThe Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement , members known collectively as Ustaše, but sometimes anglicised as Ustashe, Ustashas or Ustashi) was a Croatian anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was blend of fascism, nazism, Croatian ultranationalism, and Roman Catholic...
crimes or the disappearance of the Croatian Treasury, yet has refused to open its wartime records to substantiate its denial.
On October 21, 1946, a Top Secret report from
US TreasuryThe Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
Agent Emerson Bigelow (called "
The Bigelow Report"), which was declassified in 1997, quoted a "reliable source in Italy" (who corroborated evidence already obtained by
CICThe United States Army Criminal Investigation Command is a federal law enforcement agency that investigates serious crimes and violations of civilian and military law within the United States Army. Since 2003 it reports to the Provost Marshal General.Headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, it...
intelligence officials of the
ArmyThe United States Army is the branch of the United States Military responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military and is one of seven uniformed services...
), who alerted his superior that Croatian officials had sent 350 million confiscated
Swiss francsThe franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian exclave Campione d'Italia. Although not formally legal tender in the German exclave Büsingen , it is widely used on a day-to-day basis...
(CHF) to the Vatican Bank "for safekeeping", a sum largely in the form of gold coins. On the way some CHF150 million were allegedly seized by
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
authorities at the border between
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
and
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
, which brought the secret transfer into the open. "There is no basis in reality to the report", said Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, as reported in
TimeTime is an American newsmagazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong. As of 2009, Time no longer publishes a Canadian advertiser edition...
magazine.
The Vatican Bank has been often accused of funding the
SolidaritySolidarity is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard, and originally led by Lech Wałęsa.Solidarity was the first non-Communist-controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country...
Polish trade-union as well as the Contras, managing US covert funds.
Legal action
Vatican Bank and Franciscan Order were accused of financing the
ratlineRatlines were systems of escape routes for Nazis and other fascists fleeing Europe at the end of World War II. These escape routes mainly led toward safe havens in South America, particularly Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, and Chile. Other destinations included the United States and perhaps Canada...
s and
ODESSAODESSA, is believed to have been an international Nazi network set up towards the end of World War II by a group of SS officers in order to avoid their capture and prosecution for war crimes...
and laundering concentration camp loot. A class action suit,
Emil Alperin et al. v. Vatican Bank et al.Alperin v. Vatican Bank is a class action suit by Holocaust survivors against the Vatican Bank and Franciscan Order filed in San Francisco, California on November 15, 1999...
, was filed in the United States district court in San Francisco on November 15 1999. The plaintiffs are concentration camp survivors of
SerbSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
,
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish, and
UkrainianUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
background and their relatives as well as organizations representing over 300,000 Holocaust victims.
John LoftusJohn Joseph Loftus is an American author, former US government prosecutor and former Army intelligence officer. He is a president of The Intelligence Summit and, although he is not Jewish, a president of the Florida Holocaust Museum. Loftus also serves on the Board of Advisers to Public...
, co-author of
Unholy TrinityUnholy Trinity may refer to:*Unholy Trinity *Unholy Trinity , a song on The Who's 2006 album Endless Wire*Unholy Trinity, a book by Mark Aarons and John Loftus*Unholy Trinity, a book by Robert Bloch...
, serves as an
expert witnessAn expert witness or professional witness is a witness, who by virtue of education, training, skill, or experience, is believed to have knowledge in a particular subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially rely upon the witness's specialized opinion about an...
in this case.
Another suit, Levy v. CIA, filed under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, sought the release of U.S.
intelligence agencyAn intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to information gathering for purposes of national security and defense. Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public...
files regarding the alleged Vatican spymaster, Fr.
Krunoslav DraganovicKrunoslav Stjepan Draganović was a Croatian Roman Catholic priest and historian who is accused as being one of the main organisers of the ratlines which aided the escape of Nazi war criminals from Europe after World War II.-Biography:Draganović was from Travnik...
. New records on Draganovic were released as a result of that lawsuit in 2001.
The lawsuit was still pending in a United States
Federal CourtThe United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal court system...
as of August 2008.
http://www.vaticanbankclaims.com/vaticanaob.pdf
Role in popular culture
The 1990 film
The Godfather, Part III featured machinations in the Vatican Bank as a central element in one of its more conspiracy-oriented plotlines.
External links
Critical