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Saturday, February 7, 2015

Inside the Vatican: pornography, drugs and money laundering – spin this Pope Francis

                                                Sorry – or sorry for getting caught?

After being accused worldwide, now the Holy See’s prosecutor general admits that two cases of child pornography possession were discovered within the walls of the Vatican last year, along with many other crimes according to an article in The Guardian.

Gian Piero Milano, the Holy See’s Promoter of Justice, said the Vatican was now taking action against pedophilia in the heart of the Catholic church. So they wait until they are caught or exposed before they announce “action” – mostly the action consists of forming new committees to investigate the issue – as if it is something new!

Of course, Milano did not say who possessed child pornography although he had that information. One pedophile was identified: former archbishop Josef Wesolowski, who is facing charges. Wesolowski made headlines last year after he was accused of sexually abusing young boys when he was the Pope’s ambassador to the Dominican Republic. He is under house arrest while awaiting trial at the Vatican, -- the first sex abuse trial ever held there. Why is it taking so long? Why don’t the Italian or Dominican police have him locked up? What about all the known clergy sex abusers not on trial? Remember, the catholic church has been policing itself for 2,000 years and it hasn’t had any effect on the crimes they commit.

The Vatican is doing spin control since their other crimes are being exposed: drug trafficking and money laundering. According to the Guardian, three drug deliveries from South America addressed to the Vatican were intercepted last year, including a packet containing cocaine-filled condoms worth $46,000 U.S. The drugs were discovered at Germany’s Leipzig airport and sent to the Vatican in the hope of catching the buyer. No one came claimed the package and German investigators believe the recipient was tipped off about it. So our donations are buying drugs for vatican criminals.

I wrote about the banking scandals in detail my book (Smothered):  2010: Christian Science Monitor investigates Vatican money laundering. American archbishop and bank head Paul Marcinkus was an accessory to fraudulent bankruptcy following the disappearance of $1.3 billion in loans that were supposed to be given to institutions in South America. Is this how the vatican is helping the poor in other countries? They refuse to open their accounting books to anyone so who knows where the money (and our money) goes. The vatican, “surprised” by the investigation, plead innocent as they always do when they get caught committing a crime. Italian investigators froze 23 million euros ($33 million) in funds after finding odd and less than legitimate vatican financial practices. The vatican bankers were “unable to respond” to a series of requests about questionable money transfers of $1.5 billion from accounts in a short period of time.

The Vatican bank has a history and culture as a criminal enterprise. In 1969, lawyer, banker and Mafia don Michele “The Shark” Sindona ran the bank for his old friend pope Paul VI. Sindona used the bank to launder the Gambino Mafia family’s profits from heroin trafficking. By the late 1970s Sindona and his banks were the subject of investigations by Italian judges, prosecutors and politicians, several of whom were murdered. In 1986 Sindona, serving a 25-year sentence for murder, was poisoned in his cell by cyanide in his coffee.

Does this sound like an organization that you can trust with your money and your children?

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