Pope Leaves Financial Disarray in His Wake

By David Francis
Fiscal Times
February 11, 2013

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/02/11/Pope-Benedict-Leaves-Financial-Disarray-in-His-Wake.aspx#page1


Pope Benedict XVI, leader of the globe’s 1.2 billion Catholics, shocked the world this morning when he announced he is resigning.

The resignation of a pope is an extremely rare thing: a sitting pope hasn’t abdicated for 598 years. Benedict, who recently joined Twitter in an effort to connect with youth, said he was resigning due to poor health and old age. But this pope has also been hounded by scandals since he ascended to the papacy in 2005.

The scandals that rightly receive the most attention involve the cover-up of sexual abuses by priests around the globe, including in Benedict’s native Germany. But financial scandals have also plagued Benedict’s short time as the Holy See.

The Vatican, an independent country, has its own bank known as the Institute for Work on Religion. Little is known about the bank – like the rest of the Vatican’s inner workings, the bank is hidden under a cloak of secrecy – but it’s suspected to have $4 billion in assets.

It’s also long suspected to have a hand in money laundering. In 2010, Italian authorities seized $30 million to prevent the money from illegally moving through the bank. In total, Italian financial regulators suspect hundreds of millions of dollars were laundered through the Institute for Work on Religion.