Men Behaving Badly: More Finger Pointing From The Vatican's Bankers

The keys to this kingdom may be in the 47 binders of material the Italian Police found in Ettore Gotti Tedeschi's home.

 The Guardian posted an interesting article on some of the repercussions of the dismissal of the CEO of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi.  The article is based on 'leaks' which are obviously intended to further destroy the credibility of Tedeschi in an attempt to make him look mentally unhinged.  I guess we're supposed to overlook the fact these 'leaks' correspond with some potentially disastrous financial material found in Tedeschi's home when it was searched for evidence in an unrelated Italian financial mess.  Again this all reminds me of the old Soviet days, when potential whistle blowers were viciously discredited before they could blow their whistles--assuming they weren't dispatched some other way.  When it comes to the Vatican Bank it might just be Gotti Tedeschi has a whole woodwind section rather than just a whistle to blow. The following is edited for length:

The ousted head of the Vatican bank came under a withering counter-attack at the weekend as his former top official accused him of negligence and leaked documents were published casting doubt on his mental health.
The Vatican meanwhile warned Italian prosecutors against using information in papers seized last week from the bank's ex-president, saying it may be covered by the Holy See's "sovereign prerogatives". (These prerogatives apparently include the right to conduct criminal activity unimpeded by international secular law.)

The financier was last week reported to have prepared a series of dossiers to be sent to named individuals in the event of his sudden death. According to an Italian prosecutor, Gotti Tedeschi has said his problems at the bank started after he demanded to see "information about accounts that were not in the church's name".
But his former general manager, Paolo Cipriani, said in an interview published on Sunday that there were no numbered accounts at the Vatican bank and the only Italians, apart from priests, monks and nuns, who banked with the IOR were lay employees or pensioners of the Holy See..... (The trouble with this bit of 'truth' is that in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal of the early 80's, it was found that priests sold their access to the Vatican Bank to the highest bidders.)

......Aspersions were also cast on the ousted banker by a psychotherapist who advises the IOR on the welfare of its employees. After observing Gotti Tedeschi's behaviour at last year's Vatican bank Christmas party, Dr Pietro La Salvia wrote a report – published in the daily Il Fatto Quotidiano – which the paper said was handed to Benedict's right-hand man, secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
The report said that the banker displayed "traits of egocentricity, narcissism and a partial disconnection from reality that could be a psychopathological dysfunction"..... (I know of no reputable psychotherapist who would make a diagnosis on the basis of the behavior exhibited at a company Christmas party.  His description of Gotti Tedeschi describes most people who have one too many glasses of Christmas cheer.)

......Carl Anderson, the head of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic lay fellowship, said: "His occasional communications with me are focused not on the life of the institute but on internal political manoeuvring and on denigrating others."
The vice-president of the board, Ronaldo Schmitz, a former executive director of Deutsche Bank, also wrote to the secretary of state just before the meeting at which Gotti Tedeschi was fired to say that he would resign if the then president were not removed...

..... An independent watchdog was set up in 2010, but its charter was changed, prompting claims that some in the Vatican were less than keen on full transparency. (Hey, Carl Anderson:  This kind of thing is known as political maneuvering.)

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The following excerpt from the Daily Beast by Barbie Latza Nadeau gives a pretty good picture of what Italian sources think Mr. Tedeschi had in his house,  that Italian police now have,  and that is causing all the angst and disinformation spewing forth from the Vatican and the Vatican Bank:

......What they are reportedly worried about is a secret dossier that Gotti Tedeschi told friends he compiled “just in case something happens to me.” Local press reports say the dossier includes 47 different binders with emails from the pope, letters from cardinals, and notes and reports from various meetings tied to Vatican bank business. He had reportedly planned to deliver the dossier directly to Pope Benedict XVI, presumably as a counterargument to his May 24 firing. The cache reportedly contains irrefutable evidence that could substantiate claims that the IOR is involved in money laundering and tax-evasive practices. There were documents that allegedly show financial transactions between the Vatican and a number of surprising characters, including politicians and known middlemen for mafia bosses. If true, it would give Italian authorities a rare opening to investigate the Vatican’s banking practices with names, account numbers, and transaction dates of dealings with financial entities outside the Vatican’s historically secretive jurisdiction.

In 2010, Gotti Tedeschi and IOR general manager Paolo Cipriani were placed under criminal investigation by authorities in Rome on suspicion of alleged money laundering for shady transactions between the Vatican’s bank accounts. More than €23 million was frozen and later released after the Vatican allegedly cleansed itself by passing anti-fraud legislation. Gotti Tedeschi’s dossier reportedly also included a list of enemies who might want to harm him, including Cipriani, who is still under criminal investigation in the Italian judicial system from the 2010 affair. The Italian police are taking the banker’s enemy list seriously and are considering providing him with police protection.


Here we are again thirty years after the Banco Ambrosiano scandal and nothing seems to have changed except the names, and maybe one other thing.  Back in 1982 Archbishop Marcinkus, who more or less had Gotti Tedeschi's position,  stonewalled, refused to cooperate, and was protected by the Vatican and JPII. Eventually the Vatican coughed up some 240 million dollars to refund investors who lost money through the machinations of Roberto Calvi with a great deal of help from the Vatican Bank.  JPII accepted no responsibility when he mysteriously came up with all that money.  This time around it looks like the just deposed head of the Vatican Bank was not about to go the way of Roberto Calvi, and since he didn't enjoy the Vatican protection of Archbishop Marcinkus,  he was going to make sure he had some insurance.  Not the KofC kind I might add. 

This is almost too surreal for words.  I doubt very much Italian authorities are going to turn over those 47 binders of material, but even if they do, I'm sure somewhere there is memory stick with all that material encoded.  These are not auspicious days for the Vatican of Pope Benedict XVI.  In some ways his papacy is going to be defined by his predecessor's penchant for playing political games with money from organized crime and various intelligence agencies and that is not going to result in the kind of legacy Pope Benedict probably has in mind.  I have very little sympathy since as Cardinal Ratzinger he was up to his neck in promoting the cultural aspects of JPII"s political games and apparently never could be bothered to look at the morality of how all those games were financed.  It's all coming home to roost now and just in the nick of time as far as the Church's future is concerned.

For those who desire more information on the 1982 scandal and all it's convolutions this link will take you to a pretty well done synopsis of the major players,  and all their connections with intelligence agencies, fascist regimes, Italian financial and political leaders, organized crime, and even Masonic lodges and Opus Dei. It's somewhat long and was written in 1999 but the information is as current as it gets---until now that is.