"As the Vatican grapples with the fallout from the clerical sex abuse scandal, new evidence is beginning to emerge of questionable Church behaviour in another sphere: money.
Mafia turncoats have long alleged that the Cosa Nostra used the Vatican bank – the Institute for the Works of Religion, also known by its Italian acronym IOR – to launder its ill-gotten gains. Their accounts have often been long on colour and short on convincing detail, but a persuasive new witness has now come forward, claiming first-hand knowledge of the practice.
Massimo Ciancimino is well-placed to know: his late father, Vito, was an influential Sicilian politician, mayor of Palermo and a notorious link between the Christian Democrat Party and Cosa Nostra – and Massimo accompanied him on many of his business trips.
Mr Ciancimino has been testifying in court, granting interviews and even collaborating on a book, and what he has to say is proving increasingly embarrassing for the Vatican.
"Marcinkus was involved in the planning of this murder, even though he was never indicted for it. "
In an interview with the author Luigi Nuzzi, Mr Ciancimino described how he accompanied his father to the IOR under the pretence of buying a rare medicine only available from the Vatican pharmacy.
His father used accounts at the bank and two safety deposit boxes to store funds – often bribes he would redistribute to politicians and Mafia bosses.
Giving evidence at the appeal hearing for the murder of the Milan banker Roberto Calvi, Mr Ciancimino described a meeting between his father and Calvi on the premises of the IOR, where Calvi handed over political bribes for redistribution by “Don Vito”.
The man who threw open the doors of the IOR to men like Calvi and Mr Ciancimino senior, along with many other wealthy but tax-shy Italians who valued the services of an offshore bank located in the heart of Rome, was the American Archbishop Paul Marcinkus.
Archbishop Marcinkus’s entanglement with Calvi – whose Banco Ambrosiano collapsed ruinously in 1982 – did lasting damage to the reputation of the Roman Catholic Church. He died in the US in 2006 having steadfastly refused to explain his conduct.
His name has now been added to the list of suspects in Calvi’s murder." ...more
