Top Official Denounces Vatican Corruption: Reports

Times of Malta
January 25, 2012

www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120125/world/top-official-denounces-vatican-corruption-reports.403837

A top Vatican official who is now the envoy to Washington denounced corruption and waste in the Holy See in a series of letters to Pope Benedict XVI, Italian media reported today.

Carlo Maria Vigano was secretary general of the governorate of the Vatican -- the person in charge of the administration -- until October, when he was named ambassador to the United States in what was seen as a demotion.

In extracts from the letters published in Corriere della Sera and Libero, Vigano said he had faced a "disastrous" situation when he became head of the governorate in 2009 and said his transfer to Washington was "punishment".

"My transfer is causing disarray and discouragement among those who believed it was possible to resolve the numerous situations of corruption and waste" in the Vatican, he said in one letter to the pope in March 2011.

Much of his criticism was focused on a Vatican financial committee that includes the head of the Vatican bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. He said the bankers were favouring "their interests" more than the Vatican's.

He was also highly critical of the cost of basic technical services and said construction contracts for Vatican buildings were always going to the same companies for tariffs that were more than twice as high as in Italy.

Italian newspapers said that Vigano's reforms helped bring the governorate, which includes the Vatican Museums, from a deficit of eight-million euros ($10.4 million) in 2009 to a profit of 34.4 million euros the following year.