Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Inside the VaticanMay 09, 2020
The tower of the Institute for Works of Religion, often referred to as the Vatican bank, is pictured at the Vatican May 6, 2016. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Last week, an Italian newspaper reported that Pope Francis had fired five employees who were under investigation for their involvement in the $200 million purchase of minority stake in a luxury apartment development in London’s upscale Chelsea neighborhood.

Listen and subscribe to Inside the Vatican on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

After the Vatican’s Secretariat of State lost money on the investment, the Vatican’s middleman, Italian businessman Raffaele Mincione, advised the Vatican to buy the remainder of the property, which he owned. The Vatican’s judicial system is now investigating staffers who were involved in the deal for possible financial improprieties. Last year, Vatican police raided several offices in the Secretariat of State and the Vatican’s financial watchdog office and suspended the staff members.

America’s Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell reported this week that the situation of the five employees was more complex than the premature, unjust firings the Italian newspaper had made them out to be.

On this episode of the Inside the Vatican podcast, Gerry and I explain the background of the London deal, what happened to the five employees, and what questions still remain.

Links from the show:

Has Pope Francis dismissed five Vatican employees linked to a property deal in London?

Vatican employees suspended as finance investigation continues

Vatican police raid Secretariat of State and finance watchdog offices

The latest from america

The 12 women whose feet were washed by Pope Francis included women from Italy, Bulgaria, Nigeria, Ukraine, Russia, Peru, Venezuela and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"We, the members of the Society of Jesus, continue to be lifted up in prayer, in lament, in protest at the death and destruction that continue to reign in Gaza and other territories in Israel/Palestine, spilling over into the surrounding countries of the Middle East."
The Society of JesusMarch 28, 2024
A child wounded in an I.D.F. bombardment is brought to Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on March 25. (AP Photo/Ismael abu dayyah)
While some children have been evacuated from conflict, more than 1.1 million children in Gaza and 3.7 million in Haiti have been left behind to face the rampaging adult world around them.
Kevin ClarkeMarch 28, 2024
Easter will not be postponed this year. It will not wait until the war is over. It is precisely now, in our darkest hour, that resurrection finds us.
Stephanie SaldañaMarch 28, 2024