A new book by Italian journalist
Gianluigi Nuzzi titled "Giudizio Universale" (Last Judgment)
released on Monday claims the Vatican is experiencing a
financial crisis.
Nuzzi released a preview of the book to Italian daily La
Repubblica and said the Holy See accounting task force put into
motion by Pope Francis found Vatican accounts in a deficit that
"has reached worrisome levels, at risk of leading to default".
The book highlights a constant drop in donations to the
Church.
"The scandals are eroding the trust of the faithful," says
former La Repubblica editor and editorialist Ezio Mauro in his
article on the book.
When Francis launched the reform against financial crisis in
2018, Nuzzi reveals in his book, financial authority APSA
flagged a "parallel book-keeping" in the city state with secret
accounts for cardinals and alleged front men covering for
businessmen and politicians that were very close to the Holy
See.
When the pope asked for the closure of the suspect accounts,
La Repubblica said, the inspectors replied that "the false
bottom in Vatican finances is practically non-eliminable,"
according to insiders.
Nuzzi's book also said there were parallel accounts for
cardinals at APSA itself.
AS for the pope's personal funds, 'State secrecy' norms cover
them, the journalist said.
Giudizio Universale also reopens the case of Carlo Maria
Viganò, the former top Vatican diplomat in the United States,
who resigned after publishing a letter which said Francis should
step down for allegedly covering up a top US bishop's alleged
sex abuse.
The former Vatican diplomat said in the document that Pope
Francis had protected the former Washington DC archbishop,
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who is accused of sexually abusing
young seminarians.
The pope never considered resigning after Viganò's
accusation, Vatican sources have said.
Viganò said he told Francis about McCarrick in 2013, saying
he had been sanctioned by former pope Benedict XVI, but Francis
did nothing about it.
Francis said he would not dignify Viganò's allegations
with a reply.
The case pitted conservative critics of Francis against
progressive supporters who say the traditionalists are
"weaponising" child abuse to attack the pope's mercy-over-morals
approach.
Viganò also claimed there was a powerful gay lobby in the
Church he blamed for the abuse cover-ups, naming many of their
names.
Viganò, who was previously involved in the Vatileaks case,
said that he was not pursuing a vendetta for having been
replaced as nuncio to the US in 2016, or previously losing his
place as Vatican city governor.
"I have never had feelings of revenge or rancour in all these
years," he said.
He denied being a "poison-pen letter writer", saying "I am
accustomed to doing things in the light of day."
Viganò is one of the Church conservatives who have criticised
Francis for allegedly opening up to gays and remarried divorcés.
They have also slammed him for denouncing 'clericalism',
unfettered capitalism and the climate crisis.
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