Financial Scandal: Vatican Unable to Keep Rules – Not Only in Dogmatic Matters

A $200 million credit from then Brazilian owned Banca della Svizzera Italiana (BSI) triggered an internal dispute between the Secretary of State’s and the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority (Aif), writes CatholicNewsAgency.com (November 21).

The credit was used to finance the Secretariat of State’s purchase of a London luxury development at 60 Sloane Avenue.

The BSI was absorbed by the Swiss EFG Group in 2016, otherwise it would have lost its Swiss banking license because of money laundering.

In 2015, then deputy Secretary of State Angelo Becciu attempted to disguise the BSI loan on Vatican balance sheets by an accounting manoeuvre prohibited by Vatican financial policies.

Cardinal Pell, then the Prefect for the Economy, detected the fraud, but was summoned by Becciu and shouted at, although Pell, not Becciu, was the ultimate authority for the Vatican’s financial business.

Pell was given to understand that he was only a rubber stamp as far as Becciu was concerned.

Nevertheless, Pell raised the Becciu fraud at the Council for the Economy which is led by Munich Cardinal Marx. But the council did nothing.

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