The Vatican police “raided” offices in the Secretariat of State and the financial oversight office known as the Financial Information Authority (AIF) last week [on October 2, 2019, by "Giani's men" [2]]. Five officials were suspended: four lay people and one monsignor. The incident made headlines, and then fell off the radar pretty quickly. Why?
Part of the reason is that it has been tough to get details regarding the case. L’Espresso reported that the seizure of documents and hardware from the Secretariat of State and the suspensions were in connection with a series of operations related to a €200 million (£178 million, $247 million) real estate deal in London gone sideways. Beyond saying that the Vatican police took documents and hardware in connection with an ongoing investigation and acknowledging the reported suspensions, the Vatican has offered no details regarding the case.
There is an inconsistency between the Catholic Herald and Catholic News Agency (see below) and between the Catholic Herald and Life Site News (see below) as to the currency but not the amount of the real estate investment. It is therefore unclear whether the 200 million is in US dollars or Euro.
Since the Vatican has so adeptly obscure the facts, nobody outside of it knows the whole truth, but the sense is that this investment has not panned out as expected. Here is a peek at the nature of the investment from Catholic News Agency [3], quoted without hyperlink:
According to Financial Times, Vatican police and prosecutors are investigating the possibility of improprieties in a 2014 $200 million investment made through Athena Capital, a Luxembourg investment fund, which financed a stake in the development of a luxury apartment project in London. That investment, along with a nearly $50 million 2018 investment in the same property, has raised questions about the internal control of Vatican money held in international banks and investment vehicles, especially after repeated efforts to bring financial practices into line with international practices and standards.
and from Life Site News [4]:
The Financial Times reported yesterday that the Holy See became involved in the London real estate project, which involves the development of 45 luxury apartments, when “$200m held in Swiss bank accounts controlled by the Secretariat of State was transferred to a Luxembourg investment fund called Athena Capital.”
“Athena is owned by the Italian London-based financier Raffaele Mincione through his company WRM,” FT continued.
“Athena had bought the Chelsea building for £129m in 2012 and then sold a minority stake in the project in 2014 to a fund it managed on behalf of the Vatican as a sole client. In 2018, the Vatican bought out the remaining equity in 60 Sloane Avenue from Athena. Mr Mincione’s vehicle earned around £130m from the project overall.”
...
Mincione is believed to have made a £128 million profit when the Vatican bought his share in the London property for £168 million.
At the center of this complicated mess was "Cardinal Giovanni Becciu, who was from 2011 until 2018 the second-ranking official in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, and was in 2018 appointed to head the Congregation for the Causes of Saints." [5]
Quoted below is from another article with a bit of information on Giovanni Becciu [6]:
Libero Milone, selected by Francis to be the first auditor general, was unceremoniously kicked out of the Vatican in 2017 by the gendarmerie before he was able to finish his work for alleged double-dipping on expenses amounting to $33,000. All charges against him have since been dropped, and Milone, who had accused a former papal chief of staff, now Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, of financial malfeasance, has said his ouster was politically motivated.
There is so much that is wrong with the Vatican, but this is to be expected. May Pope Francis live a very long and healthy life to witness the fulfillment of Saint Malachy's prophesy [7]:
The prediction in full is: "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. The End.”
What the quoted prediction is unclear on is what will Peter the Roman feed his flock? Baloney, maybe? What is also unclear is whether the destruction will be a physical crumbling, a bankruptcy or a dwindling of the number of Catholics [8], [9] (except in Sub-Saharan Africa [10]), or some other kind of destruction, like a schism or an invasion. It is clear that there will be a Judge, but unclear as to when the Judge will start judging.
[1] https://catholicherald.co.uk/magazine/a-vatican-money-mystery-that-leads-back-to-london/
[2] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vatican-raid-resignation/vatican-security-chief-resigns-after-uproar-over-leak-idUSKBN1WT1PI
[3] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/cardinal-becciu-at-center-of-vatican-financial-investigation-63504
[4] https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/financial-times-top-cardinal-implicated-in-vatican-financial-corruption-scandal
[5] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/cardinal-becciu-at-center-of-vatican-financial-investigation-63504
[6] https://religionnews.com/2019/10/07/making-sense-of-the-vaticans-looming-financial-scandal/
[7] https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/st-malachy-prophecy-pope-francis
[8] http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2019/10/18/%e2%80%9cdis-evangelized%e2%80%9d-amazon-the-numbers-of-a-catholic-church-reduced-by-half/
[9] https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/
[10] http://graphics.wsj.com/catholics-world/
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