GOD'S BANKERS

Don’t get me wrong. I agree, there is much value here and I do recommend this read. . But ‘God’s Bankers’ falls short in two important areas. 1). It assumes the reader already knows the interrelationships of key players in the Vatican Bank (hence does not define them). 2) It barely mentions the ‘King Kong’ of Vatican Bank swindles. I have found only one book that covers the ‘King Kong’ of Vatican swindles—The Great Vatican Bank Scandal’. By coincidence the same book others have mentioned. Following quotes are from ‘The Vatican Murders’ /////// “In 1969, Sicilian mob boss Michele Sindona was hired by his cousins bishops Casaroli and Caprio to school the Vatican in offshore banking. This gave birth to rumors the Vatican was laundering drug money. May have happened, but never proved in a court of law… Yet the Vatican Bank did exercise poor judgement in guaranteeing some of Sindona’s shady deals. For example, in 1972 the democratic congress had cut off funds for President Nixon’s war in Central America. Nixon engaged Sindona to acquire control of the Franklin National Bank. Two years later it collapsed. The courts determined Sindona and Nixon had siphoned off large sums of the bank’s money to Somoza and other dictators in Central America to suppress the revolution of the poor on the poverty stricken isthmus. The Vatican Bank took a $40 million hit when the Franklin Bank went under to the extent the Vatican had guaranteed the transactions. (Time Magazine 7 Apr ‘80 Franklin National Bank vs. Sindona)… In truth, if one ignores rumors and considers the facts, though the Vatican transferred money in and out of Italy and issued guarantees in connection with private transactions for commissions in the 60s and 70s (both legal at the time and still legal today), there is no ‘court’ record of illegal transactions by the Vatican until ‘after’ the election of John Paul II when the Polish Pope and Roberto Calvi of Banco Ambrosiano raised hundreds of millions from unsuspecting investors and transferred it to Nicaraguan ghost companies where it was drawn down by the Contras to crush the revolution of the poor in Central America… The swindle, which broke in the press in 1982 as ‘The Great Vatican Bank Scandal,’ gave birth to rumors of ongoing shady deals in the Vatican Bank ever since.” (end of quote) ////////// The Vatican Murders: The Life and Death of John Paul I is two books in one book: 1) biography of the 33-day Pope from his first brush with homosexuality as a teen seminarian to the time he was found sitting up dead in bed reading papers held upright in his hands, and 2) ‘The Great Vatican Bank Scandal’ which presents compelling evidence the conspiracy that planned ‘The Great Vatican Bank Scandal’ was the same conspiracy that plotted the Murder of John Paul I. Hopefully these random phrases from ‘The Vatican Murders’ might give a general idea of the bank scandal. I quote: ///// “…Given the timetable of events it is obvious ‘The Great Vatican Bank Scandal’ was conceived while the 33-day Pope was still alive. Whether or not the Polish Pope was involved in the scheme during the reign of his predecessor is limited to actions John Paul II took upon becoming pope... Until 1978, the Vatican Bank reported to the Treasurer of The Patrimony of the Holy See, five steps removed from the papacy. Immediately on taking office (Oct 18, 1978) John Paul II changed its reporting status directly to the Pope. (L’Osservatore Vatican newspaper 19 Oct ’78)… Six days later, October 24, 1978, John Paul II and Roberto Calvi (Banco Ambrosiano) enacted the first transaction in the bank scandal (Latour vs. Ambrosiano Paris tribunal Oct ‘85). The last transaction took place on Jun 17, 1982 (Ansbacher vs. Ambrosiano Irish Supreme Court 1987) a week before the swindle exploded in the press as the ‘Great Vatican Bank Scandal.’ In all, more than fifty courts in thirty-four countries tried thousands of investor claims totaling $1.3 billion ($4 billion today)… As previously mentioned, John Paul II elevated Mafia cousins Casaroli and Caprio to Secretary of State and Prefecture of Economic Affairs, still today the most powerful positons in the Church (not unusual for Mafia members to rise to high levels in the Church as Mafia families were its largest financial supporters)... Vatican Bank financing of the Contras having been cut off by the courts, the Polish Pope toured Central America telling the people to stop supporting the revolutionaries and the revolution failed. He shunned the grave of Oscar Romero struck down by Vatican financed bullets (New York Times 5 Mar ’83). On returning to Rome John Paul II defrocked scores of bishops, priests and nuns who had supported the revolutionaries. (La Repubblica Rome 8 Apr ’83)… In 1984, John Paul II paid the courts $241 million for his part in the scam, a tiny fraction of his actual involvement (La Repubblica Rome 8 Oct ’84 ref: Ambrosiano vs Italia)… Conversely, midway through his papacy, John Paul I—a great supporter of the revolution in Central America—had changed the theme of the upcoming Puebla Conference to ‘Liberation of the Poor’ and announced he himself would lead it. (Excelsior, Mexico City 16 Sep ’78). ‘The Great Vatican Bank Scandal’ could not have taken place as long as he lived…” (end of quote) ////////// Like other ‘Vatican Bank’ books ‘God’s Bankers’ barely mentions the Vatican-Ambrosiano $1.3 billion swindle of 1978-82, the ‘King Kong’ of Vatican skullduggery. One last observation. ‘God’s Bankers’ correctly casts Roberto Calvi (President of Banco Ambrosiano) and Paul Marcinkus (President of the Vatican Bank) as God’s Bankers. But it covers the murder of only of Roberto Calvi. The Vatican Murders: The Life and Death of John Paul I includes the author’s 2006 interview with Paul Marcinkus while three Mafia types were being tried in a Rome court for the murder of Roberto Calvi. Gregoire’s interview with Marcinkus explains why the Vatican refuses to disclose the cause of Marcinkus' sudden death in 2006. What? You never noticed? Check ‘Paul Marcinkus’ biographies on the Internet.

if all catholics read this they would be catholic no more

Before reading this book, I had no idea how little I knew about the Catholic Church. I count Catholics among my best friends and admire their faith and morals. Of course, Catholic individuals aren’t all representative of the Catholic Church any more than every American citizen is representative of the President. I expecting the book to take more emphasis on “Banker” than “God”, but end up far more knowledgeable about the Church and money. The book itself is well-written and attention-keeping. I listened on Audible rather than reading hard-copy which was fine for me. Readers more interested in the historic (largely Italian) names and details may be better served by traditional reading. The book is extremely critical. Thankfully, it is backed by sufficient research to make the criticism credible. Starting with the topic of Church finance, I take away a simple message that finance matters a lot for the Church. This is a vast organization with 1-billion plus followers, 20 million people worldwide receiving some financial assistance from the Church, and a lay bureaucracy that requires salaries. The Vatican collects money indirectly from the local arms of the Church supplemented by direct contributions such as “indulgences” (an odd concept of donating to recover from sin), and Vatican tourism. The Vatican Bank, like any institution, generally sought to protect the interests of its (lone) shareholder and grow wealth. While at times unsavory, this has included asserting sovereign authority against money laundering investigators, liquidating Italian shareholdings when threatened with withholding tax, and making investments that resulted in “immoral behavior” (porn, weapons). The Vatican Bank, or “Institute for the Works of Religion” (IOR) is a fascinating place. Popes have taken varied levels of interest in the bank ranging from hands-on reform to making appointments and otherwise stepping back. A LOT of money passes through the bank which serves as a store of Vatican wealth, a personal bank for various members of the clergy, and payment processor for various Church organizations around the world. It is also spectacularly opaque by design and accident. By design, the Vatican is its own sovereign and therefore not subject to regulation and transparency that many of us take for granted. Institutions such as the UN have grouped the Vatican as an “offshore banking center” with states such as Switzerland, Luxemburg, Lichtenstein, and Bahamas. Depositors have taken advantage of the IOR’s special status to launder money and avoid taxes. In one stinging criticism, the author quotes an official “the Vatican is its own state when it suits them. Other times, it relies on Italy [such as after Pope John Paul II was shot].” It is also opaque by accident, lacking many of the digital features of modern banking and relying on hard copy faxes as recently as 2013. I’m personally struck by examples of Vatican officials (primarily Clergy) living elaborate lifestyles on stolen funds. It’s pretty shocking to think of Priests living in multi-million dollar homes with millions in art work and Aston Martins in the drive. How did this so often go unnoticed? The Vatican Bank wasn’t always rich. The book starts in the period when the Vatican was able to tax Papal states. As these territories became part of other sovereign nations, taxing became more difficult and the bank had to rely on voluntary contributions. Germany is an exception where the state did (still does?) collect a tax on Catholics on behalf of the Church. In the 1800’s the Vatican began borrowing from the Rothschilds in what seemed a profitable relationship for both sides. Eventually, pressure mounted against borrowing from Jews. The Church then turned to an increasingly wealthy American Catholic community for contributions. This dried up into WWI and the Great Depression. In 1929 the Lateran Treaty formally established Vatican sovereignty from Italy and granted the Church and a lot of money from Italy including bonds which tied together Vatican and Italian fortunes together. Vatican wealth took a major step-up during and after WWII. Bernadino Nogaro was an experienced investor who oriented the Vatican’s portfolio toward gold, property and a nascent Italian industrial economy. All paid through this period and the Vatican also gained influence by holding major stakes in the majority of Italy’s biggest companies. Future investors would struggle to replicate this success, often being drawn into more aggressive investments – both in terms of returns and legality. Most alarming, the author connects Vatican investment and finances to at least three specific recent scandals: (i) supporting Italy’s late-1930s military efforts in Ethiopia in an effort to support investments in the Italian defense industry, (ii) funding and harboring Holocaust war criminals, often by shielding Nazi gold, and (iii) the Child sex abuse scandals which came to light in the past twenty years. The author presents two quasi-defenses, neither of which resonates as credible (to me or the author). The better of the two is that the Vatican is an institution that “thinks in centuries”. I’m all-for long-term thinking, but equally fear this approach allowed the Vatican to overlook too much. Second, the Vatican is a large organization and every tree will have a few bad apples. It’s a large, gossipy, insular organization so bad apples are inevitable. My sense is, however, there have been simply too many with too much power. Specifically on the Holocaust, the book’s narrative is disturbing. The author (who has also written about Nazi war criminals in Argentina) argues that the Vatican: (i) Failed to speak out against the Holocaust, largely in order to protect its monetary ties with German Catholics and ties with Mussolini (ii) Laundered millions in Nazi gold – a general term for all sorts of war booty – enabling Nazi war criminals to set up new lives. Much went from Croatia, through the Vatican, and ended up in Latin America. (iii) Stuck their heads in the sand when the Jews of Rome were being rounded up for Concentration Camps. Pope Pious at the time apparently complained more about tanks blocking his view out of the Vatican than the Jews being killed, (iv) Were somewhere between un-helpful and obstructionist during 1980’s discussing regarding the return of Jewish property – Italian insurers made millions in un-paid policies. The author further connects this moral failure during the Holocaust to a long line of Vatican anti-semitism and connects all the way through Pope John Paul II’s failure to apologize at Yad Va’Shem in Israel a few years back. Specifically on the Child Sex abuse scandals, the link back to Vatican Bank is that two Popes hesitates to admit errors on behalf of the Church to avoid the risk of large settlement payments to other sovereigns. According to the author, the result was slow apologies, damage to the Church’s reputation, and an increased financial burden on the smaller dioceses, at least one of which went bankrupt in the process. No doubt, the Vatican does a lot of good for a lot of people. It offers a moral compass for one billion plus Catholics worldwide, distributes charity on a behemoth scale, and inspires hope in populations that need it (most recently John Paul II from Poland engaging Communist populations and the current Pope representing the growth of Latino and modern Catholics). The bank itself has largely filled its purpose of keeping the Vatican afloat and able to execute its mission. The book also ends on an up-beat tone praising the early days of Pope Francis’ administration as increasingly modern, flexible, and representative for new Catholics. In the end, each reader must balance the need to fund the Vatican’s social benefits against the evil and suffering it has endorsed or enabled. The author takes a critical approach emphasizing the latter. I tend to agree, with the caveat of not having heard counters to the authors’ claims.

On June 18, 1982 at 7.30am a body was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London. The body was wearing an expensive suit, which was misshapen from stones stuffed in the trouser pockets, half a brick stuffed inside his jacket and another half crammed in the pants. The body also carried an Italian passport in the name of Gian Roberto Calvini, had some $13,700 in British, Swiss and Italian currency and a $15,000 gold Patek Philippe watch was on his wrist. Some other papers and miscellanous items were also found. The passport turned out to be a fake using a variation of the man's real name - he was the 62-year-old Roberto Calvi, an Italian banker, and Chairman and Managing Director of Milan's Banco Ambrosiano (one of Italy's largest private banks). He had gone missing from Italy one week previously, having jumped bail following a criminal fraud conviction in 1981, for which he was on bail pending an appeal. Calvi's death, originating attributed to suicide, then found at inquiry to be a suspicious death, has never been solved. So does this intricately woven investigative tale by Gerald Posner begin, an event which some may recall from their memory. What eventuated from the death of Calvi was a plethora of speculation, supposition and innuendo about the secrecy around the operations, wealth and dealings of the Vatican Bank, who the key players within the Vatican were in relation to the operations of the Bank and how far reaching were its activities. In this book, Posner delves into the secretive and political inner workings of the Vatican, specifically in relation to money and its accumulation, and how it is that money has shaped and driven what the Vatican has seen as its divine mission over the centuries. Posner exposes how a religious institution which relied on donations from its faithful and the taxes it levied, went on to operate the powerful and secretive Vatican Bank with its complex web of offshore shell companies, and the dealings of the Bank with questionable businessmen, many of whom ended up in jail or dead. I found this book riveting, and I have read quite a substantial amount of the literature around the death of Calvi and Vatican finances. Posner presents a brilliantly written and researched historical tale that is fascinating, disturbing, confronting and illuminating. The names Sindona, Marcinkus, de Strobel will become familiar to you as you read this book, along with that of Calvi, and you will discover how the various Popes overtime, influenced either by their silence, complicitness or outright support, the growth and tentacles of this network. The book is detailed and does take some reading, but the reward is clear - a comprehensive, uncompromising exposé of an institution which Pope Francis now seeks to be above reproach. Whether he is able to achieve what some may regard as lofty ideal is yet to be seen. However, to gain an understanding of what he is seeking to do is the first step in understanding why it must be done, and Gerald Posner's book is most certainly the key starting point. A must read.

A must for anybody who read "In God's Name" by David Yallop back in 1984.Thanks to great advances in forensic science we now have a much better picture of Calvi's last days. Posner has done a brilliant job of assimilating vast amounts of information and presenting it well. I can still be shocked when it comes to the behaviour of certain Popes and I just hope the current Pope can make a few positive changes before he too is forced to be silent. I am not a fan of religion, least of all thie one. The world would be a better place without it. This book is one hell of a good read.

Don’t get me wrong. I agree, there is much value here and I do recommend this read. . But ‘God’s Bankers’ falls short in two important areas. 1). It assumes the reader already knows the interrelationships of key players in the Vatican Bank (hence does not define them). 2) It barely mentions the ‘King Kong’ of Vatican Bank swindles. I have found only one book that covers the ‘King Kong’ of Vatican swindles—The Great Vatican Bank Scandal’. By coincidence the same book others have mentioned. Following quotes are from ‘The Vatican Murders’ /////// “In 1969, Sicilian mob boss Michele Sindona was hired by his cousins bishops Casaroli and Caprio to school the Vatican in offshore banking. This gave birth to rumors the Vatican was laundering drug money. May have happened, but never proved in a court of law… Yet the Vatican Bank did exercise poor judgement in guaranteeing some of Sindona’s shady deals. For example, in 1972 the democratic congress had cut off funds for President Nixon’s war in Central America. Nixon engaged Sindona to acquire control of the Franklin National Bank. Two years later it collapsed. The courts determined Sindona and Nixon had siphoned off large sums of the bank’s money to Somoza and other dictators in Central America to suppress the revolution of the poor on the poverty stricken isthmus. The Vatican Bank took a $40 million hit when the Franklin Bank went under to the extent the Vatican had guaranteed the transactions. (Time Magazine 7 Apr ‘80 Franklin National Bank vs. Sindona)… In truth, if one ignores rumors and considers the facts, though the Vatican transferred money in and out of Italy and issued guarantees in connection with private transactions for commissions in the 60s and 70s (both legal at the time and still legal today), there is no ‘court’ record of illegal transactions by the Vatican until ‘after’ the election of John Paul II when the Polish Pope and Roberto Calvi of Banco Ambrosiano raised hundreds of millions from unsuspecting investors and transferred it to Nicaraguan ghost companies where it was drawn down by the Contras to crush the revolution of the poor in Central America… The swindle, which broke in the press in 1982 as ‘The Great Vatican Bank Scandal,’ gave birth to rumors of ongoing shady deals in the Vatican Bank ever since.” (end of quote) ////////// The Vatican Murders: The Life and Death of John Paul I (English Edition) is two books in one book: 1) biography of the 33-day Pope from his first brush with homosexuality as a teen seminarian to the time he was found sitting up dead in bed reading papers held upright in his hands, and 2) ‘The Great Vatican Bank Scandal’ which presents compelling evidence the conspiracy that planned ‘The Great Vatican Bank Scandal’ was the same conspiracy that plotted the Murder of John Paul I. Hopefully these random phrases from ‘The Vatican Murders’ might give a general idea of the bank scandal. I quote: ///// “…Given the timetable of events it is obvious ‘The Great Vatican Bank Scandal’ was conceived while the 33-day Pope was still alive. Whether or not the Polish Pope was involved in the scheme during the reign of his predecessor is limited to actions John Paul II took upon becoming pope... Until 1978, the Vatican Bank reported to the Treasurer of The Patrimony of the Holy See, five steps removed from the papacy. Immediately on taking office (Oct 18, 1978) John Paul II changed its reporting status directly to the Pope. (L’Osservatore Vatican newspaper 19 Oct ’78)… Six days later, October 24, 1978, John Paul II and Roberto Calvi (Banco Ambrosiano) enacted the first transaction in the bank scandal (Latour vs. Ambrosiano Paris tribunal Oct ‘85). The last transaction took place on Jun 17, 1982 (Ansbacher vs. Ambrosiano Irish Supreme Court 1987) a week before the swindle exploded in the press as the ‘Great Vatican Bank Scandal.’ In all, more than fifty courts in thirty-four countries tried thousands of investor claims totaling $1.3 billion ($4 billion today)… As previously mentioned, John Paul II elevated Mafia cousins Casaroli and Caprio to Secretary of State and Prefecture of Economic Affairs, still today the most powerful positons in the Church (not unusual for Mafia members to rise to high levels in the Church as Mafia families were its largest financial supporters)... Vatican Bank financing of the Contras having been cut off by the courts, the Polish Pope toured Central America telling the people to stop supporting the revolutionaries and the revolution failed. He shunned the grave of Oscar Romero struck down by Vatican financed bullets (New York Times 5 Mar ’83). On returning to Rome John Paul II defrocked scores of bishops, priests and nuns who had supported the revolutionaries. (La Repubblica Rome 8 Apr ’83)… In 1984, John Paul II paid the courts $241 million for his part in the scam, a tiny fraction of his actual involvement (La Repubblica Rome 8 Oct ’84 ref: Ambrosiano vs Italia)… Conversely, midway through his papacy, John Paul I—a great supporter of the revolution in Central America—had changed the theme of the upcoming Puebla Conference to ‘Liberation of the Poor’ and announced he himself would lead it. (Excelsior, Mexico City 16 Sep ’78). ‘The Great Vatican Bank Scandal’ could not have taken place as long as he lived…” (end of quote) ////////// Like other ‘Vatican Bank’ books ‘God’s Bankers’ barely mentions the Vatican-Ambrosiano $1.3 billion swindle of 1978-82, the ‘King Kong’ of Vatican skullduggery. One last observation. ‘God’s Bankers’ correctly casts Roberto Calvi (President of Banco Ambrosiano) and Paul Marcinkus (President of the Vatican Bank) as God’s Bankers. But it covers the murder of only of Roberto Calvi. The Vatican Murders: The Life and Death of John Paul I (English Edition) includes the author’s 2006 interview with Paul Marcinkus while three Mafia types were being tried in a Rome court for the murder of Roberto Calvi. Gregoire’s interview with Marcinkus explains why the Vatican refuses to disclose the cause of Marcinkus' sudden death in 2006. What? You never noticed? Check ‘Paul Marcinkus’ biographies on the Internet.