Director of Vatican Bank Chooses Silence over Profanity Following His Resignation

By Andrea Tornielli
Vatican Insider
May 25, 2012

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/the-vatican/detail/articolo/ior-15360/

Ettore Gotti Tedeschi

Following yesterday's resignation from the IOR, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi said he did not wish to make any comment lest he upset the Pope. His resignation comes after three years of service and the accumulation of a number of enemies

"I prefer not to speak, as all I would do is curse. Bear with me." "I am still torn between a yearning to explain the truth and my concern for upsetting the Holy Father with these explanations. My love for the Pope prevails over every other sentiment, even the defence of my own reputation which is infamously being questioned."

The mistrust that led to Ettore Gotti Tedeschi's resignation from his post as President of the IOR, after less that three years in office, came as a shock but the banker had been considering the possibility for months. Gotti Tedeschi had decided to collaborate directly with Roman magistrates after they began an inquiry into money movements being made in certain IOR accounts by Italian and German banks. This marked the beginning of the misunderstandings between him and the Institute's director general, Paolo Cipriani. At the time, Gotti Tedeschi who having been placed under investigation by public prosecutors received the public support of Benedict XVI who greeted him and his wife after one of his Angelus prayer in Castel Gandolfo. "We need to act as examples," the Pope had reiterated. The new president, chosen by the Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, had continued the process towards renewal and a greater transparency which had already begun, closing dormant current accounts that were registered under names of figureheads.

One of the people Gotti Tedeschi was at loggerheads with, was Marco Simeon, the current director of RAI Vaticano, one of the offices of Italy's largest television company RAI, who is linked to wheeler-dealer, Luigi Bisignani. Last summer, the IOR was involved in the rescue operation to salvage Milan's Saint Rafael hospital, called for by Cardinal Bertone and supported by a number of Milanese businessmen and politicians. Gotti Tedeschi was initially in favour of the operation but then changed his mind, considering it a risky venture. This led to fall outs with Giuseppe Profiti, manager of Rome's Bambino Gesù hospital and Bertone's number one man in the field of healthcare. Meanwhile, Gotti Tedeschi's relations with the Cardinal Secretary of State had also begun to cool, although they had improved recently.

But the point of no return for Gotti Tedeschi was the new transparency law which was supposed to get the Vatican onto the white-list of financially virtuous countries. The President of the IOR along with cardinal Attilio Nicora believed too many modifications had been made and, above all, that the role of the AIF, the Vatican's financial information authority – which was established under the old law - needed to be cut down. Moneyval's experts will sanction it this coming July, when the final report will be published on the Holy See's adherence to international standards. Gotti Tedeschi sees yesterday's gesture of mistrust as a score being settled. This score settling came as a result of the stances taken over the last year by a man who has gradually become more and more isolated in the Holy See, though still maintaining a link with the Pope's personal secretary, Fr. Georg Gänswein.

The explanation given by the Holy See and the authoritative glosses that have filtered through from the Vatican paint a totally different picture. "The decision taken by the Board of the Vatican Bank was taken independently," according to sources in the Secretariat of State, who denied rumours that Bertone was responsible for Gotti Tedeschi's resignation. These sources said that this was not the ideal moment for a move of this kind, with the Vatileaks scandal (the leaking of documents, including some of Gotti Tedeschi's correspondence) in full swing. One of the reasons given by those who passed the no-confidence motion against Gotti Tedeschi, was that he did not manage to cooperate with collaborators, with this having negative repercussions for the Institute's management. Whichever side is right, the result remains the same: the Holy See's leadership seems to have delved into an even deeper chaos.