Pope's butler discovered documents on occultism, Freemasonry

via New York Post:

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict's former butler stole highly sensitive papers the pontiff had marked "to be destroyed" and compromised Vatican security through his actions, the Holy See's police told his trial on Wednesday..."You can understand our unease when we saw these documents. This was a total violation of the privacy of the papal family," said police agent Stefano De Santis, one of the four agents who said they found the papers in Gabriele's home, using a Vatican term for the pope's closest aides...The mass of incriminating documents, most of which were hidden in huge piles of papers stashed in a large wardrobe, included personal letters between the pope, cardinals and politicians on a variety of subjects.

Some papers, De Santis said, bore the pope's handwriting and had been marked "to be destroyed" by the pontiff in German. He did not say what those papers concerned.

Some of the documents were copies of encrypted documents. "One photocopy was enough to threaten the operations of the Holy See," De Santis told the court, without elaborating. The agents said they found a mass of documents and books filled with newspaper clippings on the occult, secret services, Masonic lodges, yoga, political scandals in Italy, scandals involving the Vatican bank and other subjects...Bishop Francesco Cavina, who knew Gabriele in the Vatican, told Italian newspaper La Repubblica on Wednesday that the butler, a father-of-three, may have a "disturbed mind" and "a split personality".

Two of the four policemen who testified on Wednesday also rejected Gabriele's accusations, made on Tuesday, that he was mistreated for several weeks after his arrest...Gabriele told the court's previous hearing that for up to 20 days he was held in a room so small he could not stretch out his arms and that the light was left on 24 hours a day, causing him eye damage....The letters to the pope included one in which a senior Vatican functionary expressed concern about corruption in the Holy See's business dealings with Italian companies.

The letter-writer, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, was posted to Washington after raising the issue, despite begging to be allowed to stay at the papal state. more...

Government officials tight-lipped on bank scandal investigation

via:The Tribune



Published On:Tuesday, August 09, 2011



GOVERNMENT officials remain tightlipped over why the Bahamas government has failed to co-operate with a longstanding, multi-million dollar bank scandal investigation.



Since tracing several hundred million of missing funds to accounts in the Bahamas in 2005, sources claim that local authorities have ignored official requests for assistance - the most recent of which was sent in 2008...The tale of murder, Mafia plots, international money laundering schemes, and clandestine Masonic sects, placed the Bahamas branch of the bank, Banco Ambrosiano Overseas Limited, at the very centre of the scandal.



According to the press in Italy and the UK, Italian prosecutors are looking for funds allegedly squirreled away by former bank chairman Roberto Calvi, known as "God's banker" because the Vatican Bank was the largest shareholder. more:

Vatican Bank hit by financial scandal... again

I'm a bit late on this post but it's better late than never.



Investigators are closing in on the Pope's bank, dissatisfied by claims that it will change its ways



By Victor Simpson and Nicole Winfield



Sunday, 19 December 2010



This is no ordinary bank. The ATMs are in Latin, priests use a private entrance, and a life-sized portrait of Pope Benedict XVI hangs on the wall. Nevertheless, l'Istituto per le Opere di Religione (the Institute for Religious Works) is a bank, and it is under harsh new scrutiny, including money-laundering allegations that led police to seize €23m (£19.5m) in Vatican assets in September. Critics say the case shows that the "Vatican Bank" has never shed its penchant for secrecy and scandal.



The Vatican calls the seizure of assets a "misunderstanding" and expresses optimism that it will be cleared up quickly. But court documents show that prosecutors say the Vatican Bank deliberately flouted anti-laundering laws "with the aim of hiding the ownership, destination and origin of the capital". The documents also reveal investigators' suspicions that clergy may have acted as fronts for corrupt businessmen and the Mafia. The documents pinpoint two transactions that have not been reported: one in 2009 involving the use of a false name, and another in 2010 in which the Vatican Bank withdrew €650,000 from an Italian bank account but ignored bank requests to disclose where the money was headed. more...