Vatican City, Nov 5, 2019-CNA—A 50 million euro loan request to secure the purchase of a bankrupt hospital was vetoed by Cardinal George Pell and financial authorities at the Institute for Works of Religion, commonly called the Vatican Bank, before it was approved by the Holy See’s central bank, APSA, where the loan breached international…
Vatican City, Oct 29, 2019-CNA– An Italian dermatology hospital and two senior cardinals are at the center of a burgeoning financial scandal involving a Vatican bank, the U.S.-based Papal Foundation, and millions of euros from misallocated government grants. The events concern the financial collapse of the Istituto Dermopatico dell’Immacolata (IDI), an Italian hospital. According to…
CNA—Cardinal Angelo Becciu has denied any impropriety in a real estate investment made with Vatican funds and insisted that he only acted in the best interests of the Holy See. In an interview with Italian media published Tuesday, the former deputy at the Holy See’s Secretariat of State rejected any wrongdoing in the authorization of…
A confidential report from the Vatican’s anti-corruption authority shows that the Secretariat of State has used about $725 million, most of which came from the pope’s charity fund, in off-books operations. Italian weekly L’Espresso published a report Oct. 20, revealing information from three confidential Vatican documents, one of which is a report from the pope’s…
CNA—The recent raid of Vatican offices is connected to an investigation into charges that Vatican money financed the development of luxury properties in London, and led to a windfall for the Vatican’s investment managers, according to an Oct. 14 report from Financial Times. According to Financial Times, Vatican police and prosecutors are investigating the possibility…
Vatican prosecutors seized documents and electronic devices in a raid executed Tuesday at the offices of the most senior curial department. According to a statement from the Holy See press office Oct. 1, the raid was conducted at the offices of the general affairs section of the Secretariat of State. The action was authorized by…
MarketWatch—More than 30 years ago, Philadelphia stockbroker Mark Mulholland bought a sandwich for a homeless man and it changed his life. “He said to me, ‘Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine you did unto me,’” Mulholland recalls. “Then he said, ‘That is Matthew, 25.’” He pulled a bible…
Crux—In two recent interviews, the former president of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), better known as the Vatican Bank, spoke about the relationship between members of the Roman Curia and a failed Italian bank, the manipulation of accounts at the IOR and how working in the Vatican led him almost to lose…
On January 4, 2013, a month before Pope Benedict resigned, the Italian Central Bank turned the lights off on the entire Vatican. The Vatican no longer had the ability to make any electronic financial transactions. Italian authorities asserted that the Vatican was not in compliance with international money-laundering rules. This was a clear message that…
CNA—The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Feb. 14 officially proposed to rescind a rule to protect borrowers from predatory lending, prompting concern from Christian groups nationwide that the CFPB may weaken existing protections against loan sharks. Catholic Charities USA and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops joined a coalition of Christian groups to sign…
March 26, 2018 PHILADELPHIA (CNA/EWTN News)—Controversy over a $25 million grant from The Papal Foundation to a Rome hospital at the request of Pope Francis has prompted the foundation to say some claims about the issue are inaccurate, but that it will review its mission and take corrective measures where necessary. The Philadelphia-based foundation said March 22…
September 16, 2007 U.S. ECONOMY As the nation’s housing bubble continues to deflate, the general economy remains reasonably robust. U. S. GNP figures for the second quarter showed growth of 3.4%, well above most economic estimates, as consumers and a newly growing export trade (due at least partially to a weaker dollar) pushed growth ahead. To date, the…
