How long can the Vatican dodge Ambrosiano flak?

Desmond O'Grady re-appraises the on-going `Ambrosiano' affair and its troubling implications for the Vatican Bank.
RECENT COMMENTS by three leading churchmen have underlined the gravity of the Vatican Bank-Ambrosiano affair.
Bishop Luigi Bettazzi, President of the International Pax Christi peace movement, has said in an interview that the fact that Archbishop Paul Marcinkus' name is linked to the affair is "very disturbing".
Bettazzi, Bishop of Ivrea, in Piedmont, noting that Marcinkus' business partners Michele Sindona and Roberto Calvi, were suspected of involvement in political kidnappings and "bloody crimes", said the Church, which had gone beyond crusades and inquisitions, must also find ways of obtaining necessary funds which are more honest and open to inspection.
Some non-Italian commentators have interpreted the Vatican Bank-Ambrosiano affair as the story of jnnocent Vatican bankers embroiled in inevitably dishonest Italian dealings.
But many Italians interpret it as an episode of collaboration between shady elements in the Vatican with despicable Italian financiers. They want both identified for Italy's sake. Admittedly, part of the Italian press is anti-clerical. Moreover, some of it is only too happy to see private banks (the Ambrosiano was Italy's largest) embarrassed. But that is only part of the story.
For years, Italy has suffered a
series of killings and obscure
political manoeuvres which suggest that occult powers manipulate everything from high finance to paid killers.
This is something more than fantasy even if the contours of the affair are not all traced. But two of the people Marcinkus has dealings with, Sindona and Calvi, were Freemasons on the P-2 Lodge accused of forming a State within the State.
Sindona was linked to the Sicilian-American Mafia and the underworld taint has touched Ambrosiano.
The Church in Italy has had difficulty in representing Christ because Italian unity had to be achieved against the Papal states and also because the perpetual government party, the Christian
Democrats, while claiming to be
Catholic, has its shortcomings.
Add to this the constant accusations that the Vatican Bank has been a channel for the export of capital from Italy and it is clear why Bishop Bettazzi and others should be anxious to say, during the furore raised by the Vatican Bank-Ambrosiano affair: "This is not what the Church is, it is something else altogether." Some question whether the Polish Pope and the American Marcinkus have a similar sensitivity to the delicacy of the Italian context.
Cardinal Giovanni Benelli, Archbishop of Florence, has given two interviews which have few parallels as criticism by an ex-Vatican authority of a current Vatican prelate.
Denali made the ritual
declaration that Marcinkus is a worthy fellow but also said that just because he is a friend of the Pope he does not have to continue as president of the Vatican Bank.
In the other interview, he said if Marcinkus has made mistakes, it was due simply to incompetence and that While he (Benelli) was substitute to the Secretary of State he checked on everything but never knew what was going on in the bank. The interview is a choice example of Benelli's brusque style which made him many enemies in the Church's central administration when he was Paul VI's right-hand man. It also shows Benelli attempting to save himself from recriminations about the bank by saying, virtually,: "No one ever told me anything."
Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, the Vatican Secretary of State, is in a more awkward situation than Benelli. He presides over the Cardinalate Control Commission of the bank, so should be fully au fait with procedure.
Casaroli has appointed a three-man investigative commission which is to report to him. And he has also given an interview, more subtle than Benelli's as is his style, and which suggests that Marcinkus had an intinerary which was, perhaps, too full for one person.
Casaroli is probably reflecting in part the criticism of Nuncios who complain that Marcinkus has insisted on expensive accommodation for the Papal party on trips even when free ecclesiatical alternatives were available — and then, allegedly, leaving them with the bill. The three wise men appointed by Casaroli are expected to complete their investigation in September. Investigation into the Ambrosiano's overseas activities will be done in stages and who knows if, and when, it will ever be thoroughly completed.
The Italian magistrates investigating the Ambrosiano affair will only be able to check its Italian operations. Speculation that Ambrosiano was engaged in shady affairs, such as recycling kidnap money, reached the Vatican months ago but were ignored. The fear that these rumours will be proved, and the Vatican discredited by the links with Calvi, haunts the Vatican at the moment.
This is the major concern
rather than the fact that the Vatican lost its 1.68 per cent share in Italy's largest private bank when it was dissolved for its being held responsible for the more than $1,000 million debt, or part of it, which the Ambrosiano's overseas affiliates ran up.
, The decision on this will depend on legal judgement on the responsibility the Vatican Bank incurred through the "letters of patronage" granted to Calvi which he used to raise huge loans.
Participants at the end-ofAugust Catholic "Communion and Liberation" meeting in Rimini were asked what they thought of the Vatican Bank Ambrosiano affair. Many responded that they trusted John Paul's judgement and he had not dismissed Marcinkus. The Pope's reputation is now on the line with that of Archbishop Marcinkus.