VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud
Vatican City, October 22 – Benedict XVI’s secretary admitted in an interview Tuesday that the pope emeritus was caught off-guard when the Vatican bank chairman was ousted during his tenure in May 2012. Ettore Gotti Tedeschi was sacked by the Institute of Religious Works (IOR) supervisory board amid reported disagreements over moves to get on the UN’s white list of states with top credentials against money laundering. “Benedict XVI, who had called Gotti to the IOR to bring forward the policy of transparency remained surprised, very surprised” by the no-confidence vote, prelate Georg Gaenswein told newspaper Il Messaggero, when questioned whether Benedict XVI had been kept in the dark on the matter. Benedict XVI “esteemed and loved him, but out of respect for the competencies of those who were responsible (for the decision),” the pontiff “chose not to intervene in that moment”, but later was in contact with the ex-chairman through “discreet” means. Gotti Tedeschi was replaced seven months later by German banker Ernest von Freyberg, who has focused on transparency and international compliance as the IOR copes with questions into its past and scandal stirred by the June arrest of a man who once led a key Vatican accounting unit, Msgr Nunzio Scarano, who is accused of trying to smuggle 20 million euros into the country.
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