The Passion of the Bureaucrats: a review of 2 books about Vatican financial scandals

[muriel_volestrangler]

Opening every chapter with a stern quotation – ‘Thou shalt not store up treasures on earth,’ ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house’ – Fittipaldi explores these scandals one by one, quoting generously from the documents in his possession, a number of which he presents as facsimiles for the sake of authenticity. The anecdotes are endless: the monsignor who appropriates a room from the adjacent apartment of a poorer priest simply by knocking down the party wall while the other man is in hospital; the diplomat priest who takes advantage of the diplomatic bag to carry mafia money across the Swiss border; the organisation Propaganda Fide, instituted to evangelise the world, that spends relatively little on this mission while owning almost a thousand valuable properties in and around Rome, many of them rented way below market price to friends and favourites.

It is striking how many Catholic organisations seem to do a whole range of lucrative things they were never set up to do, while still enjoying tax exemption as religious institutions. When priests in Salerno were granted €2.3 million of public money to build an orphanage in a depressed urban area, they built a luxury hotel instead. Found guilty of appropriating funds under false pretences in 2012, the archbishop of Salerno avoided punishment when the crime lapsed under the statute of limitations before his appeal could be heard. Others went to jail.

Overall, however, it is Fittipaldi’s figures rather than his anecdotes that are most fascinating. For example, aside from its vast properties, four major hospitals and several universities, the Vatican possesses stocks and shares worth between €8 and €9 billion (Fittipaldi gives a map of its investments around the world). Real estate the Church owns in Italy is deliberately undervalued in order to lower property taxes (auditors estimated the property was worth four times the sums declared). Thanks to the fiscal law known as ‘otto per mille’, which allows Italian citizens to assign 0.8 per cent of income tax to a church of their choice, the Vatican receives about a billion euros a year in state aid (80 per cent of the total fund). Although the €40 million advertising campaign aimed at persuading taxpayers to opt for the Catholic Church focuses on its humanitarian work in the Third World, only 23 per cent of the money is spent on charity work, and the Church isn’t obliged to offer any public account of how it spends the money. Despite the success of its extraordinary museums (€58 million in profits in 2011), the Vatican earns more through the handful of ordinary shops that operate in its tiny territory: a petrol station, a pharmacy, a tobacconist’s, a supermarket (which sells electronic goods and clothes). According to treaty agreements between Italy and the Vatican, purchases at these shops are restricted to card-holding citizens of the Vatican (fewer than five hundred people), residents (another three hundred) and employees (2800). Yet the pharmacy alone turns over around €40 million a year, many times more than a regular Italian pharmacy. Sales figures from the other shops suggest that the Vatican’s citizens, mostly priests and nuns, smoke, drink and drive far more than any other population worldwide. In short, the restrictions are not respected: the shops in fact serve around 41,000 customers and the Italian state simply accepts the considerable loss in tax revenue. As the auditors commented, the income is welcome, but being responsible for unloading tax-free cigarettes on the Romans doesn’t help the Vatican’s image.
...
In an attempt to keep the tradition alive, John Paul II encouraged communities to put forward candidates for sanctification. The 482 new saints announced during his long pontificate amounted to almost a quarter of all those canonised in the previous five hundred years. At present some three thousand cases are pending; each one takes many years and requires those proposing a candidate to choose a postulator and open a line of credit at the Vatican bank. The process will not reach a positive conclusion without hundreds of thousands of euros changing hands. Fittipaldi describes the case of the American TV preacher Fulton John Sheen, who died in 1979, which has been handled by the most prolific postulator, Andrea Ambrosi. Proceedings began in 2002 but Fittipaldi only has figures for 2008-13, during which time Sheen’s supporters spent more than €332,000, most of it going into Ambrosi’s pocket. ‘Perhaps it’s just coincidence,’ Fittipaldi remarks, ‘but the bills are always higher for the richer American churches.’ In one year translation expenses were €16,000 and publishing expenses €52,000 (Ambrosi owns a controlling stake in the Vatican publishing house that holds a monopoly on printing the postulators’ findings); in 2011 a two-man research trip to the US cost €13,000. Pope Francis has since warned Ambrosi to tighten his belt, while Sheen remains as yet unbeatified and his supporters frustrated.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n04/tim-parks/the-passion-of-the-bureaucrats

This letter was sent to Cardinal Pell by the secretary of the Governorate of the Vatican, after he was appointed to head the clear-up of the mess:

Most Reverend Eminence, first of all may I beg you to accept my warmest congratulations for your appointment as Secretary for the Economy. Meantime, I am pleased to inform your eminence that the most eminent cardinals are eligible for the following concessions: the purchase of groceries in quantities compatible with your family requirements … at a discount of 15 per cent; a discount of 20 per cent on the list price (already tax free) of up to 200 packs of cigarettes of the 500 packs allowed on a monthly basis; a discount of 20 per cent on the list price of clothing items; an allowance of 400 litres of petrol on the following terms: a) 100 litres paid by the Vatican; b) 300 litres at a discount of 15 per cent on presentation of Cardinal Vouchers (the white ones), to be used inside the Holy See … While I remain at your service for every eventual elucidation, I am pleased to take this opportunity to assure you, in line with my most devoted respect for Your Most Reverend Eminence, that I remain your most devoted Fernando Vérgez Alzaga.

I'm trying to work out what the 'family requirements' for groceries of a cardinal are, or what the life expectancy of a cardinal who smokes 500 packs of cigarettes a month is.

[trotsky]

1. And when you look at this issue, you see the same framework that has been responsible for...

the child abuse scandals. Priests and the hierarchy are viewed as exempt and protected from secular law because it's part of the church tradition and teaching to have them be "above" any earthly authority.

So while religious assholes whine about "anti-Catholic bigotry" every time this ongoing behavior of the church is criticized, they only succeed in demonstrating that they wish to defend the powerful against the weak, the oppressor against the oppressed.