Over 50 billion dollars in securities. Gold reserves that exceed those
of industrialized nations. Real estate holdings that equal the total
area of many countries. Opulent palaces containing the world's
greatest art treasures. These are some of the riches of the Roman
Catholic Church. Yet in 1929 the Vatican was destitute. Pope Pius XI,
living in a damaged, leaky, pigeon-infested Lateran Palace, could hear
rats scurrying through the walls, and he worried about how he would
pay for even basic repairs to unclog the overburdened sewer lines and
update the antiquated heating system. How did the Church manage in
less than seventy-five years such an incredible reversal of fortune?
The story here told by Church historian Paul L. Williams is
intriguing, shocking, and outrageous.The turnaround began on February
11, 1929, with the signing of the Lateran Treaty between the Vatican
and fascist leader Benito Mussolini. Through this deal Mussolini
gained the support of the staunchly Catholic Italian populace, who at
the time followed the lead of the Church. In return, the Church
received, among other benefits, a payment of $90 million, sovereign
status for the Vatican, tax-free property rights, and guaranteed
salaries for all priests throughout the country from the Italian
government. With the stroke of a pen the pope had solved the Vatican's
budgetary woes practically overnight, yet he also put a great
religious institution in league with some of the darkest forces of the
20th century.Based on his years of experience as a consultant for the
FBI, Williams produces explosive and never-before published evidence
of the Church's morally questionable financial dealings with sinister
organizations over seven decades through today. He examines the means
by which the Vatican accrued enormous wealth during the Great
Depression by investing in Mussolini's government, the connection
between Nazi gold and the Vatican Bank, the vast range of Church
holdings in the postwar boom period, Paul VI's appointment of Mafia
chieftain Michele Sindona as the Vatican banker, a billion-dollar
counterfeit stock fraud uncovered by Interpol and the FBI, the
"Ambrosiano Affair" called "the greatest financial scandal of the 20th
Century" by the New York Times, the mysterious death of John Paul I,
profits from an international drug ring operating out of Gdansk,
Poland, and revelations about current dealings.For both Catholics and
non-Catholics this troubling expose of corruption in one of the most
revered religious institutions in the world will serve as an urgent
call for reform.
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Money, Murder, and the Mafia
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781615921423
Publisert
2017
Utgiver
Vendor
Prometheus
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter