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Institute for the Works of Religion

Coordinates: 41°54′1″N 12°27′15″E / 41.90028°N 12.45417°E / 41.90028; 12.45417
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Institute for Works of Religion
Istituto per le Opere di Religione
Company typePrivate
IndustryFinancial services
Founded27 June 1942 (absorption of the Administration of the Works of Religion)
HeadquartersVatican City
Key people
Ronaldo Hermann Schmitz (President)
Enrico Salza (Vice-president)
Websitehttp://www.vatican.va/

The Institute for Works of Religion (Italian: Istituto per le Opere di Religione – IOR), commonly known as the Vatican Bank, is a privately held institute[1] located inside Vatican City run by a CEO who reports directly to a committee of cardinals, and ultimately to the Pope (or the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church during a sede vacante). Since its assets are not considered property of the Holy See, it is not overseen by the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See,[2] and it is listed in the Annuario Pontificio.[3] The bank's most recent President, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was removed from his post by the board of directors in May 2012, for dereliction of duty.[4]

The Institute was involved in a major political and financial scandal in the 1980s, concerning the 1982 $3.5 billion collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, of which it was a major shareholder. The head of IOR from 1971 to 1989, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, was under consideration for indictment in 1982 in Italy as an accessory of the bankruptcy; however, he was never brought to trial due to the Italian courts' ruling that the priest, being a high-ranking prelate of the Vatican, had diplomatic immunity from prosecution.[5] As a private organization performing banking-like functions for religious institutions, it is not subject to public scrutiny. It nonetheless, presented a short presentation on its operations in 2012, apparently in response to recent criticism.[6]

The Bank Identifier Code of the Institute for Works of Religion is IOPRVAVX.

Origin

The Istituto per le Opere di Religione was founded on 27 June 1942 by Pope Pius XII. It absorbed the Amministrazione delle Opere di Religione (Administration of the Works of Religion), which had originated in the Commission for Works of Charity (Commissione ad pias causas) established by Pope Leo XIII on 11 February 1887.[7][8]

It has always been distinct from what has become the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, which instead of administering funds destined for works of charity, manages the funds remaining at the disposal of the Pope after the complete loss of the Papal States in 1870 and those that were part of the settlement of the Roman Question by the Lateran Pacts of 1929.

The purpose of the Istituto per le Opere di Religione is "to provide for the safekeeping and administration of movable and immovable property transferred or entrusted to it by physical or juridical persons and intended for works of religion or charity".[7][8]

It is thus not a department of the Roman Curia, and is therefore not among the departments of this central administrative structure of the Roman Catholic Church.[9]

Nor is it a central bank responsible for a country's monetary policy and for maintaining the stability of a currency and money supply. This function is regulated by the Monetary Agreement between the European Union and the Vatican City State,[10] authorizing the use of the euro as the official currency of Vatican City, and implementation of the agreement within the state is overseen by the Financial Information Authority established on 30 December 2010.[11][12]

Unlike in banking for profit, the surplus is used for religious and charitable purposes.[13]

Organisation

According to the norms of its present statutes, which came into effect in 1990, the IOR is directed by a supervisory council and by an oversight commission of cardinals.

As of 23 September 2009 the supervisory council was composed of[14]:

Controversy

The Institute is a successful and profitable bank. By the 1990s, the IOR had invested over US$10 billion in foreign companies. In 1968 Vatican authorities hired Michele Sindona as a financial advisor, despite Sindona's questionable past. It was Sindona who was chiefly responsible for the massive influx of money when he began laundering the Gambino crime family's heroin money (taking a 50% cut) through a shell corporation "Mabusi". This laundering was accomplished with the help of another banker, Roberto Calvi, who managed the Banco Ambrosiano. Both Calvi and Sindona were members of the P2 Lodge.[16]

When Pope John Paul I became Pope in 1978 he was informed of allegations of wrongdoing at the Institute for Works of Religion, and instructed Jean-Marie Villot, Cardinal Secretary of State and head of the papal Curia, to investigate the matter thoroughly.

Banco Ambrosiano scandal

Main article: Banco Ambrosiano

The Vatican Bank was Banco Ambrosiano's main share-holder. Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, head of the IOR from 1971 to 1989, was indicted in Italy in 1982 as an accessory in the $3.5 billion collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, one of the major post-war financial scandals. Banco Ambrosiano was accused of laundering drug money for the Sicilian Mafia, led by Filippo Barbagli, which used Propaganda Due ("P2"), a mobbed up Masonic lodge, as an intermediary. P2 and its Worshipful Master, Licio Gelli, were also involved in financing right wing terror groups during the 1970s. Marcinkus was not tried in Italy, where courts ruled that he possessed diplomatic immunity. He retired to Sun City, Arizona (US) where he died on February 21, 2006.

The Vatican Bank denied having legal responsibility for the Banco Ambrosiano's downfall but did acknowledge "moral involvement", and paid US$241 million (£169 million) to creditors.

Other allegations

Several books published during the 1980s and 1990s, such as Unholy Trinity: How the Vatican's Nazi Networks Betrayed Western Intelligence to the Soviets, Genocide in Satellite Croatia 1941–1945 and The Vatican's Holocaust, were highly critical of the Institute for Works of Religion's historical relations with anti-communist governments and especially with the Independent State of Croatia during World War II.[17][18][19] Sources such as these engendered initial defensive hostility and controversy, which centers on conclusions drawn from the documentation rather than the documents themselves.

According to a 1998 report issued by the US State Department, the Independent State of Croatia treasury was illicitly transferred to the IOR and several banks after the end of World War II.[17] For its part, the Vatican has repeatedly denied any participation in Ustashi crimes or the disappearance of the Croatian Treasury, yet has refused to open its wartime records to substantiate its denial.

On October 21, 1946, a Top Secret report from US Treasury Agent Emerson Bigelow (called "The Bigelow Report"), which was declassified in 1997, quoted a "reliable source in Italy" (who corroborated evidence already obtained by CIC intelligence officials of the Army),[20] who alerted his superior that Croatian officials had sent 350 million confiscated Swiss francs (CHF) to the IOR "for safekeeping", a sum largely in the form of gold coins.[20] On the way some CHF150 million were allegedly seized by British authorities at the border between Austria and Switzerland, which brought the secret transfer into the open. "There is no basis in reality to the report", said Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, as reported in Time Magazine.[21]

The Institute for Works of Religion has been often accused of funding the Solidarity Polish trade-union as well as the Contras, managing US covert funds.[22]

Class action suit by Holocaust survivors

Main article: Alperin v. Vatican Bank

Alperin v. Vatican Bank is a class action suit by Holocaust survivors against the Institute for Works of Religion and Franciscan Order ("Order of Friars Minor") filed in San Francisco, California on November 15, 1999. The case was initially dismissed as a political question by the District Court for the Northern District of California in 2003, but was reinstated in part by the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2005. That ruling has attracted attention as a precedent at the intersection of the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA).

The complaint against the Vatican Bank was dismissed in 2007 on the basis of sovereign immunity, but the case against the Franciscan Order continues as of 2009. According to Reuben Hart, "the case is extremely complicated and potentially massive, considering the large class spread across many countries".[23]

2009–2012 Vatican money laundering investigation

In 2009, the Italian magazine Panorama reported that IOR was being investigated by Italian authorities from the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Banca d'Italia and the Guardia di Finanza over money laundering transactions worth €180 million (US$ 218 million) through a branch of UniCredit located at Via della Conciliazione across from St. Peter's Basilica.[24] The bank handles accounts of the religious orders and other Catholic associations using the "offshore" (i.e., foreign) status of the Holy See.[25]

On 21 September 2010, Italian police declared that Gotti Tedeschi and another IOR manager were under investigation for money laundering charges. €23 million were seized as a precaution.[26] Police began an investigation regarding Tedeschi around a week before the news was made public after a division of the Bank of Italy alerted police to two transactions involving the IOR that were deemed suspicious.[27] The money seized was bound from an Italian bank, Credito Artigianato, to JP Morgan Chase and another Italian bank, Banca del Fucino.[27] Both the origin and destination of the funds were accounts under the control of the IOR.[28] The IOR had allegedly failed to disclose the origin of the money, a violation of Italian law.[27]

In a statement regarding the investigation, the Vatican said that it was "...perplexed and astonished by the initiatives of the Rome prosecutors, considering the data necessary is already available at the Bank of Italy."[27] According to the police, the presence of the investigation did not mean either of the officials involved had been charged with a crime, and a judicial ruling would be necessary to continue the investigation.[28]

On Thursday, December 30, 2010, the Catholic News Service homepage reported that Pope Benedict XVI had issued an Apostolic Letter that established the Financial Information Authority as an independent agency to oversee the monetary and commercial activities of all Vatican-related institutions, including the IOR. It will monitor all Vatican financial operations and make sure they meet international norms against money-laundering and the financing of terrorism.

On May 31, 2011, Rome's attorney general released the 23 million Euros in assets which had been seized in September, apparently in acknowledgment of the steps taken in the following months to conform the Institute to international standards.

On May 24, 2012, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi was ousted as Head of the Vatican Bank because of "failure to fulfill the primary functions of his office." He is currently being investigated on suspicion of money laundering.[29]

The 1990 film The Godfather, Part III featured machinations in the IOR based on the Banco Ambrosiano scandal as a central element in one of its more conspiracy-oriented plotlines.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Template:It Cfr. art. 2 of the Chirograph signed by John Paul II
  2. ^ Pollard, 2005, p. 2
  3. ^ Annuario Pontificio 2012, pp. 1796-1803
  4. ^ "Ettore Gotti Tedeschi". BBC News. 24 May 2012. Retrieved 2012-05-24.
  5. ^ The New York Times: "U.S. prelate not indicted in Italy bank scandal" 30 April 1989
  6. ^ [1]
  7. ^ a b Chirografo di Giovanni Paolo II con il quale viene data nuova configurazione all'«Istituto per le Opere di Religione»
  8. ^ a b Annuario Pontificio 2012, p. 1908
  9. ^ Roman Curia
  10. ^ Monetary Agreement between the European Union and the Vatican City State
  11. ^ Motu proprio for the prevention and countering of illegal activities in the area of financial dealings
  12. ^ Pope requires full transparency of transactions in the Vatican
  13. ^ L'Osservatore Romano, 24 February 2008
  14. ^ http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=97758
  15. ^ "Vatican Bank chief Tedeschi dismissed". BBC News. 24 May 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  16. ^ Mark Lombardi: Global Networks. Mark Lombardi, Robert Carleton Hobbs, Judith Richards; Independent Curators, 2003 (published for the travelling exhibition of his work, "Mark Lombardi Global Networks"). ISBN 0-916365-67-0
  17. ^ a b Aarons & Loftus, Unholy Trinity, p. ??
  18. ^ Paris, Edmond. Genocide in Satellite Croatia 1941–1945. The American Institute for Balkan Affairs, 1990.
  19. ^ Manhattan, Avro (1986). The Vatican's Holocaust. Ozark Books.
  20. ^ a b Aarons & Loftus, Unholy Trinity, p. 297
  21. ^ The Vatican Pipeline, Time Magazine, July 22, 1997
  22. ^ "Gelli arrest is another chapter in sordid Vatican bank scandal". American Atheists. September 16, 1998.
  23. ^ Reuben Hart. 2006. "Property, War Objectives, and Slave Labor Claims: The Ninth Circuit's Political Question Analysis in Alperin v. Vatican Bank". 36 Golden Gate U.L. Rev. 19.
  24. ^ Josephine McKenna (2009-12-07). "Vatican Bank reported to be facing money-laundering investigation". The Times. Retrieved 2010-06-12.
  25. ^ Agence France-Presse (2010-06-01). "Vatican bank suspected of money laundering: report". MSN. Retrieved 2010-06-05. [dead link]
  26. ^ AGI News On (2010-09-21). "IOR: GOTTI TEDESCHI UNDER INVESTIGATION, 23 MLN EURO SEIZED". Retrieved 2010-09-21.
  27. ^ a b c d "Vatican Bank 'investigated over money-laundering'". BBC News Online. 21 September 2010. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
  28. ^ a b Donadio, Rachel (21 September 2010). "Money-Laundering Inquiry Touches Vatican Bank". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
  29. ^ "Vatican bank chief ousted after unanimous no-confidence vote". USA Today. 24 May 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2012.

References

  • John F. Pollard: Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: Financing the Vatican, 1850–1950 ISBN 0-521-81204-6
  • Mark Aarons and John Loftus: Unholy Trinity: How the Vatican's Nazi Networks Betrayed Western Intelligence to the Soviets. New York: St.Martin's Press, 1992. 372 pages. ISBN 0-312-07111-6
  • Malachi Martin: Rich Church, Poor Church (Putnam, New York, 1984) ISBN 0-399-12906-5
  • Malachi Martin: Vatican (Jove (August 1, 1988)) ISBN 978-0-515-09654-5
  • Charles Raw: The Moneychangers: How the Vatican Bank Enabled Roberto Calvi to Steal 250 Million Dollars for the Heads of the P2 Masonic Lodge (Harvill Press, 1992) ISBN 0-00-217338-7
  • Giancarlo Galli: Finanza bianca. La Chiesa, i soldi, il potere (Mondadori, 2004) ISBN 88-04-51262-8
  • David A. Yallop: In God's Name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I
  • Mark Lombardi: Global Networks. Mark Lombardi, Robert Carleton Hobbs, Judith Richards; Independent Curators, 2003 (published for the travelling exhibition of his work, "Mark Lombardi Global Networks"). ISBN 0-916365-67-0
  • Jonathan Levy, "The Vatican Bank", in Russ Kick (Ed.), Everything You Know is Wrong (Disinformation Press, 2002) ISBN 1-56731-701-4
  • Michael Phayer: Pius XII: The Holocaust and the Cold War, 2008, ISBN 13:978-0-253-34930-9.
Criticism

41°54′1″N 12°27′15″E / 41.90028°N 12.45417°E / 41.90028; 12.45417

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