Long tainted by financial scandals and suspicion of collusion with the mafia, the Vatican started a turning point to restore its integrity. Under the impetus of Pope Francis, concrete measures have been set up to clean up the finances of the Holy See and assert a firm position against organized crime. © Stefano Costantino/Sopa Images/Lightrocket/Getty_images save saved Receive Pope alerts in an article by Géo, Christophe Dickès, doctor of contemporary history and specialist in Catholicism, recalls that the links between Mafia and Vatican would date over a century. The Vatican Bank, the IOR, has long been accused of whitening dirty money of organized crime. Returning to the violent death, in 1982, of the banker Roberto Calvi, Christophe Dickès wrote: “His death had been commanded by mafia groups in order to punish him for having taken big sums of money belonging to Cosa Nostra and the Camorra”. These sums placed at the IOR had served “to feed the anti -brand groups and to accelerate the fall of the Soviet Union.” But things have changed, particularly under the impulse of Pope Francis. The sovereign pontiff, who disappeared on April 21 at the age of 88, multiplied the speaking condemning with virulence mafia abuses, without obscuring the role that the Holy See was once playing. As early as 2014, François declares that belonging to the mafia is incompatible with the Catholic faith and constitutes a reason for excommunication, denouncing a “cult of evil”. He also launched a working group intended to strengthen this doctrinal line against corruption and organized crime. To read also: Scandal in the Vatican: how Pope Francis tackled corruption “The mafia are not Christians”, insisted Pope Francisla appoints, in 2019, of the antiMafia judge Giuseppe Pignatone at the head of the Vatican court symbolizes this desire for reform. Two years later, during the health crisis, Pope Francis accuses criminal organizations of exploiting the pandemic, and repeats: “The mafia are not Christians”. For several years, the Holy See has been subject to international standards for financial transparency, requiring the IOR to strengthen its controls. The supervision authority also noted in 2024 a 30 % drop in suspicious activities of the Vatican bank. Read also: when Pope Francis asked the cardinals to pay … Rent remains that the links between the mafia and the Vatican continue to haunt the institution. Some specialists, such as journalist Gianluiggi Nuzzi, author of the Vatican Book SA, the Vatican secret archives (2011) suggest that networks have been able to maintain an influence. “There remains a certain number of pockets a little obscure within the Vatican in terms of funding, confirmed, in December 2024 on France 3, the deputy editor of the newspaper La Croix, Loup Desmond de Senneville, there were therefore internal fears that a speech too clear on the mafia and a speech too concrete from a legal point of view on the mafia threatens the internal interests.” Receive our latest news every day, selecting the main news of the day. (tagstotranslate) pope
