The assets of the Church is immense, but due to reckless expenses and poor control Vatican finances are in serious trouble. Nor have Pope Francis’ maneuvers have managed to buffer the blade of the accounts. And this will be one of the most urgent problems of the Pontiff who will come out of the Conclave.
They say that the Jesuit Carlo Maria Martini, Archbishop of Milan and last to dress the cardinal purple under the Madonnina – is the sign of Francesco’s “revenge” – has bitterly repented that he presented that Jorge Mario Bergoglio to the “mafia” of St. Gallo, the informal group of high prelates reformists who met near the Swiss locality. Using that noun Torvo, Giovanni Falcone who recommended to “follow the money” comes to mind. Here, to understand the other Bergoglio, the one beyond the celebrations, the money must be followed and so you can understand the enormous problems that the disappeared Pope leaves open in the accounts of the Church.
Martini over the years and before his death had changed his opinion on Bergoglio: Too attentive to earthly things, unable to fly high as the spirit of St. Gallo required, too little political and too populist. Yet in 2013 the Argentine cardinal appeared to many the fastest solution to pick up the open flaw of Ratzinger’s resignation. One thing in St. Gallo had liked him: he had it with the Roman Curia and wanted to put his hand to the money. As soon as he ascended to Peter’s throne, Francis of that dealt with: cutting his nails to the Curia, to centralize Vatican finances on himself. However, the reform did not succeed, on the contrary, it gave disastrous results. And today the Conclave is forced to deal with debts! Yet the heritage attributable to the Catholic universe is enormous: over two thousand billion euros. Except that Rome controls an exposure and this was Francesco’s concern. His purpose? Maybe they really help the south of the world. One thing is sure: the NGOs have “died” the church as the sacred cow. One of the many examples are the transfers that the CEI has detached to Luca Casarini for his Mediterranean and the “papabile” cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi had to “defend” for these money. It would be over two million euros between 2021 and 2023
Wearing the Tiara, Bergoglio calls Cardinal George Pell to himself and appoints him prefect for the economy. The Australian has a severe program. Francesco trusts him, but at the same time he creates things, the commission to review the administration of the Holy See. There is only one prelate, Monsignor Lucio Ángel Vallejo Balda, secretary of the prefecture of economic affairs, a subordinate of Pell. Surprisingly in Cosea, Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui also enters. It comes from the big advice Ernst & Young, however it has an excellent reference: the proximity to Vallejo Balda linked to Opus Dei. She and her prelate friend will end up condemned to firm Vatileaks for the escape of documents. The ChaouquiMqui shines in the Sloane Avenue affair: it has it with Giovanni Angelo Becciu, a powerful cardinal who whispers to the ear of Bergoglio.
It makes a certain effect to think that Francesco was taken in the middle in a chatter, what he – in words – aborted. It seems strange, but Vatican finances have been governed with this chatter. Becciu is torpedoed because he was convinced by Monsignor Alberto Perlasca – who will become his accuser, now reinstated in the Curia – to buy a building in London with the money of the Obolo di San Pietro. A real estate scandal: trial, everyone knew, but only those that the Pope expands are condemned. Pell also ended up on a trial for pedophilia. They fulfill it, but the episode is enough to remove it. Also Libero Milone, the controller of the controllers, the pelle trusted man is removed.
Another tour and overlooks Reinhard Marx, a purple German cardinal who, like his homonymous, believes that the money is “the Devil’s Steco”. Result the Secretariat of State by Pietro Parolin – which today is indicated as a papabile – the funds are seen, as well as the Governorate. Marx has from his officer that the German faithful pay compulsorily, but governs a church torn by internal contrasts. Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller attributes him to have brought her to a Protestant drift.
In the meantime, Pandemia Covid breaks out and the Vatican Museums no longer bring resources: The red of the accounts of the Holy See reaches almost 90 million euros. The church of Bergoglio does not find support in the faithful of the West: so in 2023 – the latest available data – out of 110 million outings, the Saint Peter’s shore that lives on offers records income for just 52 million. Bergoglio calls to make a Jesuit to do the accounts: Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, nicknamed “hands of scissor”. The Spanish prefect puts all the dicasteries except propaganda Fide on diet where, at that moment, Cardinal Antonio Tagle reigns, the only one who spends without limits for the southern South. Yet even Guerrero Alves does not last.
In the end Bergoglio is convinced that only lay people can save money to the Church. Thus goes a radical reform of the IOR (the institute for religion works, once the bank of scandals) and places you at the top Gian Franco Mammì.del equal entrusts the economic prefecture to Maximo Caballero Ledo, offers Cardinal Kevin Farrell – the current Camerlengo who supervises the conclave – the management of the staff including the pension fund (it is remembered in this regard that the first one has risked Strike of Vatican Lay Employees in 18 centuries of history) and appoints Cardinal Christoph Schönborn president of the IOR Control Commission. Finally, he sends Nunzio Galantino home, president of APSA the Vatican real estate operator, and puts the archbishop Giordano Pacinotti as head.
However, it is of no use: today the new Pope could be chosen by looking at the money. They are the famous, evangelical 30 money. In the center there are always the contributions in decline in the faithful: those from Germany halved, decreased by 70 percent those of the United States. And it is on this that Raymond Leo Burke counts, one of the cardinals protagonist of the Dubia: American conservative, he presented himself in conclave with a chewing of nine meters. These use the financial leverage to convince the purple to abjure Bergogliano secularism, to return to tradition and make the votes converge on Cardinal Timothy Dolan, friend of the US vice -president JD Vance.
Equal maneuver of opposite sign is the one contained by the French President Emmanuel Macron, First sponsor of the Cardinal of Marseille Jean-Marc Aveline. Macron is ready to “buy” a part of Conclave. If the 30 money decides the new Pope there is an Italian cardinal who could aggregate the money: Claudio Gugerotti, Veronese seventy -year -old from the Circle of Villa Nazareth. It is the alternative to Parolin. And he has hooks in the world of finance. Because the Vatican must make cash. With the Italian state, the previous five billion ICI is debt – the European infringement procedure is standing – and a very reliable study of the union of the atheists estimated in 7.4 billion per year the cost paid by taxpayers.
Yet the Church would have resources. The IOR and the APSA boast budgets in active. In 2023 the bank recorded a net profit of 30, 6 million euros. The APSA with profits for 45.9 million is the main source of funding, with a boundless assets of four thousand properties. Who are nothing compared to the possessions of the religious bodies and on which Bergoglio wanted to dictate law. According to real estate scenarios are 45,927 buildings for 38.6 million square meters and 42.5 billion euros in value.
Even with the Knights of Malta the Pope has opened a capital dispute. Because the hunger for Vatican money is unquenchable. It does not depend on the salaries, nor of the cardinals (about five thousand euros per month of average), nor the bishops (3,500 euros), much less by the papal supply (2,500 euros per month, but the Pontiff can spend on Libitum), rather by five thousand employees (a cut of 8 percent of the lay salaries of the lay people who perceived 1,600 euros per month was launched) consultancy, subsidies and offers. In the Vatican they hoped for the Jubilee, but the flows are disappointing. And so the Curia in search of money put historical properties with income. They built luxury bed & breakfasts, including Domus Paolo IV; Bill Gates bought Palazzo della Rovere on Via della Conciliation to make us a supervolution hotel; All the Vatican valuable properties, wherever they are, are being transformed with a tourist objective. This is the legacy of the Pope of the last.
