Head of Italian Religious Order Held in Corruption Inquiry

By Tom Kington
The Guardian
November 7, 2013

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/07/italian-religious-order-leader-arrested-camillians

Father Renato Salvatore, head of the Camillians, accused of scheme to prevent to rival priests voting against his re-election

The holy reputation of an Italian religious order that has nursed the sick since 1582 has taken a body blow after its leader was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and corruption.

Father Renato Salvatore, head of the Camillians, which offers medical care in 30 countries, is accused of hiring corrupt policemen to take two rival priests into custody on trumped-up accusations to stop them voting against his re-election.

Bearing red crosses on their cassocks, Camillians have tended to victims of plagues and wars through the centuries, inspired by their founder, Saint Camillus, an Italian soldier turned priest who described a hospital as "a house of God, a garden where the voices of the sick were music from heaven".

The order also manages hospitals, and investigators believe Salvatore's desire to control lucrative construction contracts, including at one hospital in Casoria, near Naples, pushed him to try to fix his re-election in May.

Working with an accountant, Paolo Oliviero, it is alleged, Salvatore convinced two tax police officers to haul in two priests, Rosario Messina and Antonio Puca, for questioning about property deals on the day of ballot, seizing their mobile phones to prevent them from alerting the order.

"On Monday from three onwards we vote, and at that point both of them disappear," Salvatore told Oliviero in a phone call wiretapped by police.

The two tax police officers, Alessandro Di Marco and Mario Norgini, who are also suspected of helping channel hospital construction contracts to friendly firms, were found in possession of tens of thousands of euros in cash and luxury wristwatches when investigators raided their homes. They have also been arrested.

"It is with great surprise and profound pain that we learn that our superior general has been arrested by the tax police to respond to the acts attributed to him," said Father Paolo Guarise, the vicar general of the order. "We are living through this moment in prayer and with faith that light can be shone on this matter."