Vatican in default ?: A book says it's on the brink of insolvency

The book demonstrates the continued decline of donations to the Vatican. "The scandals – he writes in his article Ezio Mauro– erodes the trust of the faithful. "

When in 2018 the pope Francisco launched the reform against the financial crisis, in the archives of the APSA – the Vatican Bank – a parallel accounting appeared, revealed by Nuzzi in the book, with secret stories of cardinals and alleged leaders that would cover the politicians and businessmen close to the Holy See.

At the request of the pontiff to close the suspicious accounts – read in La Repubblica – the inspectors responded by explaining that "The double funds of the Vatican are practically impossible to eliminate."

"Universal judgment" reopen the case Viganó, the prefect of the communication forced to resign after having censored a letter of Joseph Ratzinger, publishing SMS between Viganó and Monseigneur himself Georg Ganswein, prefect of the pontifical house that follows the emeritus pope, where one speaks precisely of the letter in question.

It appears from the book that Pope Francis was informed of parallel accounting in the APSA with figures of up to two million euros and an availability of 200,000 euros in the accounts, in the name of cardinals as Giovanni Lajolo, who was at the head of the government and elector at the last conclave, Eduardo Martínez Somalo, Paul Josef Strings, William Baum and Agostino Cacciavillan.

Also according to the reconstruction of Nuzzi, after being informed by a Monsignor (who remains anonymous), the pope would have responded firmly: "These accounts must be closed immediately."

Also included are information on offers at Obolo de San Pedro, which have not been communicated in recent years: "The biggest surprise," wrote Nuzzi, "is the composition: the individuals are only the third donor, the dioceses, in the first place, the foundations."

In addition, there are surprises in terms of income for the top ten countries: firstly the United States (27.62%), followed by France (12.19%) and the United States. Italy (10.75%).

According to the test of Nuzzithere would be a "state secret" on the personal funds available to the pope that even the pontiff himself would not know in their details

These funds are supposed to be managed by an internal bank, "a little-known entity on the Vatican's power card: the administrative office of the secretary of state," one of the sectors "more reluctant to transparency, still confined to protect its perimeter reforms of the Holy Father."

"In the halls of the sacred palaces, it is even called the" third bank "(after the IOR and the APSA)," the book adds, stating that the entity manages important treasures of secret accounting.

Gianluigi Nuzzi, the author of the book, told ANSA that "today" lawyer Angela De Rosa went to the Vatican justice promoter and handed over a copy of the "Universal Trial" accompanied by a brief note that I signed, exactly as in November 2017., when she always brought a copy of the original "sin," which was gave birth to the investigation of the Vatican and the prosecutor's office of Rome, concerning allegations of ill-treatment of students of the seminary of San Pío X ".

The data from the book speak of a "slump in income" and an "uncontrolled increase in staff costs, the inability to value assets, starting with the huge real estate assets Hijacked by customer logic, lack of strategy and dispersion of investments in companies, stocks and shares, with frequent losses of millions of euros.

"The situation certainly got worse when Francisco's predecessor, Benedict XVI, decided to retire," Nuzzi told ANSA, in response to a question about a possible resignation of the pontiff because of the situation.

"All the parameters have been rushed," he explained, "for example in the APSA The operating results parameters show landslides exceeding 60%. However I think the Holy father is determined to reverse the situation regarding what is no longer a wound but bleeding ".

"The instruments at his disposal are insufficient, for me we are confronted with a collapse of the direction of the curia.The instruments are old, according to the documents.The manual transcriptions of numbers are still used at the time of the Artificial intelligence, "he warned. .

"The announced revolution in the management of the coffers has not been realized," said Nuzzi, admitting that some decisions had not been made for reasons "related to the doctrine of corruption. Church, at risk and fear of harm to reputation ".

The Vatican version

The Vatican is not in danger of collapsing, let alone non-respect (dafault), said Bishop Nunzio Galantino, President of the Apostolic Headquarters (APSA) Heritage Administration.

"This is just not true," said Galantino in an exclusive interview with Avvenire, which will be released in the future edition.

To the accusations of "clientelist management without rules, phantom accounting and stubborn sabotage of the pope's action," the prelate responded with budget data: "in fact, the regular management of the APSA in 2018 was closed with a gain of more than 22 million euros. Negative accounting data is exclusively due to an extraordinary intervention aimed at saving the operation of a Catholic hospital and the jobs of its employees. "

The APSA, he added, "has no encrypted or secret accounts." With regard to an alleged conflict between the pope and the curia, Galantino's statements are clear: "Contrasting the pope with the curia is a used newspaper cliché, we all continue to work to balance income and expenditure, and by Therefore, we try to exactly what the pope wants.

Other readings know a lot about the "Da Vinci Code", which is an absolutely new approach to reality. "What is happening at the Vatican is," recalls the president of the APSA, the consequence of the need for a review of spending, as it occurs in any family and in any state serious.