God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican

by Gerald Posner

  Nuzzi, Gianluigi. Ratzinger Was Afraid: The Secret Documents, the Money and the Scandals that Overwhelmed the Pope. Rome: Adagio, 2013.

  ———. Sua Santità: Le carte segrete di Benedetto XVI. Milan: Chiarelettere, 2012.

  ———. Vaticano S.p.A.: Da un archivio segreto la verità sugli scandali finanziari e politici della Chiesa. Milan: Chiarelettere editore, 2009.

  Pacelli, Francesco. Diario della conciliazione. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1959.

  Pallenberg, Corrado. Inside the Vatican. New York: Hawthorn, 1960.

  Passelecq, Georges, and Bernard Suchecky. The Hidden Encyclical of Pius XI, translated by Steven Rendall. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1997.

  Peters, Walter H. Life of Benedict XV. Milwaukee: Bruce, 1959.

  Phayer, Michael. The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.

  ———. Pius XII, the Holocaust, and the Cold War. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008.

  Piazzesi, Gianfranco. Gelli: La carriera di un eroe di questa Italia. Milan: Garzanti Libri, 1983.

  Pollard, John F. Benedict XV: The Unknown Pope and the Pursuit of Peace. London: Burns & Oates, 2005.

  ———. Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: Financing the Vatican, 1850–1950. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

  ———. The Vatican and Italian Fascism, 1929–32: A Study in Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

  Raw, Charles. The Moneychangers: How the Vatican Bank Enabled Roberto Calvi to Steal $250 Million for the Heads of the P2 Masonic Lodge. London: Harvill/HarperCollins, 1992.

  Reese, Thomas J., SJ. Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996.

  Rhodes, Anthony. The Vatican in the Age of the Dictators, 1922–1945. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1973.

  Riccards, Michael P. Vicars of Christ: Popes, Power, and Politics in the Modern World. New York: Crossroad, 1998.

  Rickman, Gregg J. Conquest Redemption: A History of Jewish Assets from the Holocaust. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2007.

  Romano, Sergio. Giuseppe Volpi: Industria e finanza tra Giolitti e Mussolini. Milan: Bompiani, 1979.

  Rychlak, Ronald J. Hitler, the War, and the Pope. Columbus, MS: Genesis, 2000.

  Sarfatti, Michele, translated by John and Anne C. Tedeschi. The Jews in Mussolini’s Italy: From Equality to Persecution. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006.

  Seldes, George. The Vatican—Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. New York: Harper & Bros., 1934.

  Sereny, Gitta. Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience. New York: Vintage, 1983.

  Simoni, Gianni, and Giuliano Turone. Il caffè di Sindona: Un finanzieri d’avventura tra politica, Vaticano e mafia. Milan: Garzanti Libri, 2009.

  Simpson, Christopher. Blowback: America’s Recruitment of Nazis and Its Effects on the Cold War. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988.

  Stourton, Edward. John Paul II: Man of History. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2006.

  Tannenbaum, Edward R. The Fascist Experience: Italian Society and Culture, 1922–1945. New York: Basic Books, 1972.

  Tardini, Domenico (Cardinal). Memories of Pius XII, translated by Rosemary Goldie. Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1961.

  Teeling, William. Pope Pius XI and World Affairs. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1937.

  Teodori, Massimo. Vaticano rapace: Lo scandaloso finanziamento dell’Italia alla Chiesa. Venice: Marsilio Editiori, 2013.

  Thavis, John. The Vatican Diaries: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church. New York: Viking, 2013.

  Thomas, Gordon, and Max Morgan-Witts. Pontiff. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983.

  Tittmann, Harold. Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II. New York: Doubleday Religious Publishing, 2004.

  Tosches, Nick. Power on Earth. New York: Arbor House, 1986.

  Volk, Ludwig. Das Reichskonkordat vom 20, Juli 1933. Ostfildern: Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, 1972.

  Walsh, John Evangelist. Bones of St. Peter: The First Full Account of the Apostle’s Tomb. New York: Doubleday, 1982.

  Webster, Richard A. The Cross and the Fasces: Christian Democracy and Fascism in Italy. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1960.

  ———. Industrial Imperialism in Italy, 1908–1915. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975.

  Weigel, George. Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II. New York: Cliff Street, 1999.

  Weisbord, Robert G., and Wallace P. Sillanpoa. The Chief Rabbi, the Pope, and the Holocaust: An Era in Vatican–Jewish Relations. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1992.

  Willan, Philip. The Last Supper: The Mafia, the Mason and the Killing of Roberto Calvi. London: Robinson, 2007.

  ———. The Vatican at War: From Blackfriars Bridge to Buenos Aires. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse LLC, 2013.

  Willey, David. God’s Politician: John Paul at the Vatican. New York: St. Martin’s, 1993.

  Wills, Garry. Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit. New York: Doubleday, 2000.

  Wynn, Wilton. Keepers of the Keys: John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II—Three Who Changed the Church. New York: Random House, 1988.

  Zuccotti, Susan. Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.

  Selected Articles, Reports, and Other Publications

  Allen, John L. Jr. “Debunking Four Myths About John Paul I, the ‘Smiling Pope.’ ” National Catholic Reporter, November 2, 2012.

  ———. “New Vatican Transparency Guru Brings Unique Pedigree.” National Catholic Reporter, September 12, 2012.

  ———. “Vatican Abuse Summit: $2.2 Billion and 100,000 Victims in U.S. Alone.” National Catholic Reporter, February 8, 2012.

  Amatori, Franco. “Entrepreneurial Typologies in the History of Industrial Italy (1880–1960).” The Business History Review 54, no. 3 (Autumn 1980).

  Anderson, Harry, Rich Thomas, and Hope Lamfert. “Inside the Vatican Bank.” Newsweek, September 13, 1982.

  Assicurazioni Generali: Source Materials on Communist Expropriations of Generali and Insurance Claims Paid to Holocaust Victims. Prepared for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, January 15, 1998.

  Bardazzi, Marco. “No Transparency. That’s Why We Fired Gotti Tedeschi.” “Vatican Insider,” La Stampa, May 27, 2012.

  Bazoli, Giovanni. “The Ambrosiano Failure.” The American Banker, July 12, 1983.

  Belth, Joseph. “Life Insurance and the Holocaust.” The Insurance Forum, Special Holocaust Issue 25, no. 9 (September 1998).

  Berry, Jason. “The Shame of John Paul II: How the Sex Abuse Scandal Stained His Papacy.” The Nation, May 16, 2011.

  ———. “The Tragedy of Acadiana.” The Times of Acadiana, May 23, 1985.

  Blanshard, Paul. “The Roman Catholic Church and Fascism.” The Nation, March 1948.

  Burnett, Michael, Father Thomas Doyle, and Dr. James Freiburger. “Report of the Audit and Review of the Files of the Capuchin Province of St. Joseph.” June 2013.

  Cameron, Rondo E. “Papal Finance and the Temporal Power, 1815–1871.” Church History 26, no. 2 (1957).

  Cannon, Carl M. “The Priest Scandal: How Old News at Last Became a Dominant National Story . . . And Why It Took So Long.” American Journalism Review, May 2002.

  Chadwick, Owen. “Weizsäcker, the Vatican, and the Jews of Rome.” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 28, no. 2 (April 1977).

  Colby, Laura. “Vatican Bank Played a Central Role in Fall of Banco Ambrosiano.” The Wall Street Journal, April 27, 1987.

  DiFonzo, Luigi. “Justifiable Homicide.” New York, April 11, 1983.

  Dinmore, Guy. “Upheaval Lifts Vatican Bank’s Veil of Secrecy.” Financial Times. October 16, 2009.

  Farnsworth, Clyde H. “Michele Sindona, the Outsider as Insider in Worldwide Finance.” The New York Ti
mes, May 20, 1974.

  Gallagher, Jim. “The Pope’s Banker.” Chicago Tribune, March 13, 1983.

  Hametz, Maura. “Zionism, Emigration, and Anti-Semitism in Trieste: Central Europe’s ‘Gateway to Zion,’ 1896–1943.” Jewish Social Studies, New Series 13, no. 3 (Spring–Summer, 2007).

  Hawkins, Dana, and Jason Vest. “A Vow of Silence: Did Gold Stolen by Croatian Fascists Reach the Vatican.” U.S. News & World Report, March 22, 1998.

  Hebblethwaite, Peter. “Scandal in Rome Has Buffeted the Church; Italian Political Corruption Purges.” National Catholic Reporter, March 26, 1993.

  Horne, J. Paul. “The Cardinal as a Money Manager.” Institutional Investor, January 1971.

  Hughes, John Jay. “The Reich Concordat 1933: Capitulation or Compromise?” Australian Journal of Politics and History 20 (1974).

  Jorisch, Avi. “The Vatican Bank: The Most Secret Bank in the World.” Forbes, June 26, 2012.

  Kent, George. “Pope Pius XII and Germany: Some Aspects of German–Vatican Relations, 1933–1943.” American Historical Review 70 (October 1964).

  Kent, Peter C. “A Tale of Two Popes: Pius XI, Pius XII and the Rome-Berlin Axis.” Journal of Contemporary History 23 (1988).

  Leigh, David. “How the Vatican Built a Secret Property Empire Using Mussolini’s Millions.” The Guardian, January 21, 2013.

  Lewin, Ernst A. “The Finances of the Vatican.” Journal of Contemporary History 18, no. 2 (April 1983).

  Lipscher, Ladislav. “The Jews of Slovakia: 1939–1945,” in The Jews of Czechoslovakia, ed. Avigdor Dagan, vol. 3 of Historical Studies and Surveys (New York: Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews, 1984).

  Magister, Sandro. “All the Denarii of Peter. Vices and Virtues of the Vatican Bank.” L’Espresso, June 15, 2009.

  ———. “For Peter’s Cash, A Calm Amid the Storm.” L’Espresso, January 30, 2009.

  ———. “No Glorious Sunset for Cardinal Bertone.” L’Espresso, February 2, 2012.

  ———. “Vatican Diary/Viganò, the untouchable.” L’Espresso, January 26, 2012.

  Maltese, Curzio, and Carlo Pontesilli, Maurizio Turco, “Scandal, Intrigue and Mystery; The Secrets of the Vatican Bank.” La Repubblica, January 26, 2008.

  McGoldrick, Patricia M. “New Perspectives on Pius XII and Vatican Financial Transactions During the Second World War.” The Historical Journal 55, no. 4, (December 2012).

  Nuzzi, Gianluigi. “Ior parallelo. Conti segreti in Vaticano.” Panorama, May 17, 2005.

  Palmo, Rocco. “God’s Bankers: Not Afraid.” Whispers in the Loggia, October 14, 2008.

  Pollard, John F. “Conservative Catholics and Italian Fascism: The Clerico-Fascists,” in Martin Blinkhorn ed., Fascists and Conservatives: The Radical Right and the Establishment in Twentieth Century Europe (London: Unwin Hyman, 1990).

  ———. “Religion and the Formation of the Italian Working Class,” in R. Halpern and J. Morris, eds., American Exceptionalism? US Working-Class Formation in an International Context (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1997).

  ———. “The Vatican and the Wall Street Crash: Bernardino Nogara and Papal Finances in the Early 1930s.” The Historical Journal 42, no. 4 (December 1999).

  ———. “The Vatican, Italy and the Cold War,” in Diane Kirby, Religion and the Cold War (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).

  Popham, Peter. “The Case of God’s Banker: Roberto Calvi the Trial Begins.” The Independent (London), October 6, 2005.

  Pullella, Philip. “At the Vatican Bank—Money, Mystery and Monsignors.” FaithWorld, Reuters, June 12, 2012.

  ———. “Corruption Scandal Shakes Vatican as Internal Letters Leaked.” Reuters, January 26, 2012.

  ———. “U.S. Adds Vatican to Money-Laundering ‘Concern’ List.” Reuters, March 8, 2012.

  Reeves, William Harvey. “The Control of Foreign Funds by the United States Treasury.” Law and Contemporary Problems, Duke University Law School, 1945.

  Sanderson, Rachel. “The Scandal at the Vatican Bank.” The Financial Times Magazine, December 6, 2013.

  Shelah, Menachem. “The Catholic Church in Croatia: The Vatican and the Murder of the Croatian Jews,” in Remembering for the Future: The Holocaust in an Age of Genocides, Vol. 1 (Oxford: Pergamon, 1988).

  Squires, Nick. “Division Among Cardinals Paved Way for Selection of Pope Francis.” Christian Science Monitor, March 15, 2013.

  Terry, Karen, et al. The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States, 1950–2002, prepared by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Washington, DC: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2004.

  ———. The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States: Supplementary Data Analysis, March 2006.

  ———. The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950–2010, May 18, 2011.

  Tornielli, Andrea. “The Vatican and Transparency: Moneyval’s Objections.” “Vatican Insider,” La Stampa, May 8, 2012.

  ———. “The Vatican’s Temptation to Exit the Euro.” “Vatican Insider,” La Stampa, July 24, 2012.

  Tosatti, Marco. “The Secretariat of Mysteries and the Shadows of Accomplices.” “Vatican Insider,” La Stampa, May 29, 2012.

  Trifković, Srdjan. “Rivalry Between Germany and Italy in Croatia, 1942–1943.” The Historical Journal 36, no. 4 (December 1993).

  “Vatican’s Finances: Paul’s Pence.” The Economist, February 8, 1975.

  Wassermann, Andreas, and Peter Wensierski. “Transparency vs. Money Laundering: Catholic Church Fears Growing Vatican Bank Scandal.” Der Spiegel, July 2, 2012.

  Webster, Richard A. “The Political and Industrial Strategies of a Mixed Investment Bank: Italian Industrial Financing and the Banca Commerciale, 1894–1915.” VSWG: Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial-und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 61. Bd., H. 3, 1974.

  White, Elizabeth. “The Disposition of SS-Looted Victim Gold During and After World War II.” American University International Law Review 14, no. 1, Article 15 (January 1998).

  “Why the Pope Chose to Sign the Concordat.” The New York Times, March 31, 1929.

  Winfield, Nicole. “Pope Proposes New Financial Order Guided by Ethics.” Business News, Vatican City, Associated Press Online, July 7, 2009.

  ———. “Pope Wants a Closer Look at Vatican’s Finance Reform,” The Big Story, Associated Press, November 28, 2013.

  Government Publications

  Acta Apostolicae Sedi (Acts of the Apostolic See). The official gazette of the Holy See, first issued under Pius X in 1909, and then about twelve times a year since then. Online at http://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/index_en.htm.

  Administration of the Wartime Financial and Property Controls of United States Government, United States Treasury Department, Foreign Funds Control, December 1942.

  Commission Inquiry Report into the Activities of Nazism in Argentina. CEANA, 1999.

  Commissione Parlamentare D’inchiesta Sul Caso Sindona E Sulle Responsabilita Politiche Ed Amministrative Ad Esso Eventualmente Connesse (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the Case of Sindona and Responsibilities and the Political and Administrative Connected to It), Chamber of Deputies of the Senate, VIII Legislature, Doc. XXIII, May 22, 1980 and June 23, 1980.

  The Eizenstat Report and Related Issues Concerning United States and Allied Efforts to Restore Gold and Other Assets Looted by the Nazis during WWII, May 1997.

  Elimination of German Resources for War, Volumes 1–9, U.S. Congress, Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, 79th Congress, 2nd Session, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1945.

  “Fate of the Wartime Ustaša Treasury.” Report of U.S. State Department, June 2, 1998.

  Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, Europe, 1942. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1964.

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nbsp; Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, Europe 1943. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1964.

  Holocaust Victims Assets in Swiss Banks. Senate Banking Committee, New York City Hearing, October 16, 1996.

  Independent Commission of Experts. Switzerland and Gold Transactions in WW2, May 25, 1998.

  Interagency Task Force on Nazi Assets Directed by Under Secretary of State Stuart Eizenstat, U.S. Department of State. “U.S. and Allied Efforts to Recover and Restore Gold and Other Assets Stolen or Hidden by Germany During World War II,” Preliminary Study (1997), Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

  “Klaus Barbie and the United States Government.” A Report to the Attorney General of the United States, August, Office of Special Investigations, U.S. Department of Justice, 1983.

  Mutual Evaluation Report. Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism. Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism, the Holy See (Including Vatican City State) (MONEYVAL), July 4, 2012.

  Papers from the London Conference on Nazi Gold, December 2–4, 1997, UK.

  Plunder and Restitution: The US and Holocaust Victims’ Assets. Findings and Recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States and Staff Report, December 2000.

  Records and Documents of the Holy See Relating to the Second World War. Actes et documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. Vatican City: Liberia Editrice Vatican, 1965–81. Editors: Pierre Blet, Angelo Martini Burkhart Schneider, and Robert A. Graham.

  ———Volume 1: Le Saint Siège et la guerre en Europe Mars 1939–Août 1940.

  ———Volume 2: Lettres de Pie XII aux Évêques Allemands 1939–1944.

  ———Volume 3: Two parts: Le Saint Siège et la situation religieuse en Pologne et dans les Pays Baltes 1939–1945.

  ———Volume 4: Le Saint Siège et la guerre en Europe Juin 1940–Juin 1941.

  ———Volume 5: Le Saint Siège et la guerre en Europe Juillet 1941–Octobre 1942.