The Vatican is
investigating two people for misappropriation in connection with
expensive renovations to a penthouse apartment inhabited by its
former Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican
press office deputy chief Greg Burke said on Thursday.
Burke said the probe began after allegations that the work
was paid for by a foundation linked to the Bambin Gesù pediatric
hospital in Rome, confirming an earlier report by L'Espresso
news magazine.
The pediatric hospital operates in the Italian national
health system but is owned and managed by the Holy See.
The suspects were named as the hospital's former chairman
Giuseppe Profiti and its former treasurer, Massimo Spina.
Cardinal Bertone is not under investigation, Burke added.
On Thursday, L'Espresso anticipated a report to be
published Friday claiming that judicial authorities at the
Vatican had launched a probe into the funding scandal following
revelations made by journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi in his
controversial 2015 exposé book Avarice, on the Vatican's
financial empire.
Fittipaldi, who authored the Friday article, is on trial in
the Vatican along with four others in the so-called Vatileaks 2
case involving the alleged leaking and publishing of
confidential Vatican documents, some of which became material
for his book.
"Pope Francis' judges have already found evidence
documenting how the renovations to the apartment were paid for
by the Bambin Gesù pediatric hospital foundation," Fittipaldi
wrote in the article.
L'Espresso claims the renovations cost a total of 422,000
euros and were billed not to the contractor that actually
carried out the work - the now-defunct Castelli Re - but to a
London-based holding company controlled by Gianantonio Bandera,
the owner of Castelli Re and Bertone's personal friend.
"The money destined for sick children was in actuality used
for the renovations and then sent on to London," Fittipaldi
writes.
"In addition to the seven invoices paid to the builder out
of the Foundation's accounts at the Institute for Religious
Works (IOR) and the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy
See (APSA), Pope Francis' magistrates also have signed letters
nailing Benedict XVI's former secretary of state to his
responsibilities," L'Espresso continued.
The magazine is allegedly in possession of correspondence
between Profiti and Bertone suggesting the manager offered to
pay for the renovations through the foundation in exchange for
hosting "institutional meetings" in the penthouse apartment, and
that the cardinal accepted the offer the following day.
"Bertone's name is not cited in the magistrates' document
but the Holy See will find it hard to overlook his direct
involvement in the scandal," L'Espresso said.
The cardinal has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing over
renovations to the penthouse in Via della Conciliazione near St
Peter's Basilica.
"I used my savings," Bertone wrote in Genoa-based Catholic
weekly Il Cittadino last November.
"I have the paperwork to prove I paid roughly 300,000
euros to the Vatican governorate from my own account.
"I later discovered that the Bambin Gesu' Foundation had
made a contribution for the same purpose," he continued.
"I rule out having ever given indication or authorised the
foundation to make any payment," the cardinal said.
Cardinal Bertone also denied living in luxury.
"The apartment measures 296 square metres and I don't live
there on my own. I live with a community of nuns who help me,"
the prelate told Corriere della Sera newspaper at the time.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
